CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface    5 

Address    of    Chairman     9 

By  Mr.  William  Hayes  Ward 
Race   Differentiation — Race   Characteristics 14 

By  Prof.   Livingston  Farrand 
The  Negro   Brain    22 

By  Prof.   Burt  G.  Wilder 
Address     67 

By  Prof.  Edwin  R.  A.  Seligman 
Address 71 

By  Prof.  John  Dewey 
Race    Reconciliation    74 

By  Mrs.   Celia  Parker  Woolley 
Politics  and  Industry  79 

By  Prof.  W.   E.  B.   DuBois 
Race  Prejudice  as  Viewed  from  an  Economic  Standpoint. ..  89 

By  Dr.   William  L.   Bulkley 
The  Negro  and  the   South    98 

By  Mr.  William  English  Walling 

Discussion    no 

Address  of  Chairman   121 

By  Judge  Wendell  Phillips  Stafford 
Address     127 

By  Mr.  John  T.  Milholland 
The  Race  Problem 131 

By  the   Rev.  Jenkins   Lloyd  Jones 
Is  the   Southern   Position  Anglo-Saxon  ?    136 

By  Prof.  John  Spencer  Bassett 
Evolution  of   the  Race   Problem    142 

By  Prof.  W.   E.  B.   DuBois 
The    Problem's    Solution     159 

By  the  Rev.  J.  Milton  Waldron 
Civil  and  Political  Status  of  the  Negro   167 

By  Bishop  A.  Walters 


341993 


Lynching  Our  National  Crime   174 

By  Mrs.   Ida  Wells-Barnett 
Negro  Disfranchisement  as  it  Affects  the  White  Man 180 

By  Hon.  Albert  E.   Pillsbury 
The  Need  of  Organization   197 

By  Mr.   Oswald   Garrison   Villard 
Effect  on   Poor  Whites  of  Discrimination  Against  Negroes.. 207 

By  Hon.  Joseph  C.   Manning 
The   Negro  and   the    Nation    211 

By  Dr.  William  A.   Sinclair 
Address    214 

By  the  Rev.  C.  E.  Stowe 
Address    217 

By  the  Rev.  E.  W.  Moore 
Address    220 

By  Mr.   Charles   Edward  Russell 

Resolutions 222 

Letter  from  Mr.  William  Lloyd  Garrison    226 

Letter   from   Hon.    Brand   Whitlock    .  .  .228 


PREFACE 


Early  in  1909  some  twenty  persons  met  together  in 
New  York  City  for  the  purpose  of  utilizing  the  public  in 
terest  in  the  Lincoln  Centennial  in  behalf  of  our  colored 
fellow  citizens.  Within  a  few  weeks  this  number  was 
enlarged  to  about  fifty,  one-third  of  whom  were  from 
other  cities  than  New  York.  From  the  outset  this  com 
mittee  was  composed  of  white  and  colored  people  alike, 
and  represented  the  most  varied  opinions;  all  agreed  only 
in  the  feeling  that  no  one  of  the  great  efforts  now  being 
made  by  the  Negroes  or  by  whites  in  their  behalf  or  all 
of  them  put  together  fully  responded  to  the  needs  of  the 
situation. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  all  the  members  of  the  prelimi 
nary  committee,*  and  I  believe  also  of  every  one  of  those 
since  interested  in  the  Conference,  that  the  most  neglect 
ed  side  of  the  Negro's  welfare  is  his  right  to  civil  and 
political  equality,  recognized  for  nearly  half  a  century  in 
this  country  and  clearly  expressed  in  the  Constitution. 

It  was  realized  that  no  organization  then  ex 
isted,  composed  of  colored  and  white  people  alike,  that 
was  making  its  main  object  the  preservation  of  these 
rights,  now  threatened  from  so  many  quarters.  It 
was  considered  highly  important  to  establish  a  re- 


*The  Committee  invites  communications  of  all  kinds,  not  only 
questions  as  to  its  work,  but  all  possible  information  and  sug 
gestions  concerning  the  civil  and  political  status  of  the  colored 
people  and  related  matters,  the  deteriorating  effects  of  civil  and 
political  wrongs  on  general  welfare;  and  also  with  reference  to 
the  indirect  effect  of  such  civil  and  political  disabilities  on  those 
white  elements  of  the  population  which,  being  most  similarly 
situated  to  the  Negroes  in  their  daily  life  and  occupations,  are 
often  similarly  affected  by  the  prevailing  persecution. 


lation  between  organisations  already  in  existence 
as  well  as  among  individuals  who,  while  working  for  the 
colored  population  primarily  in  some  other  direction,  were 
also,  firmly  decided  to  stand  for  the  Negro's  political  and 
civil  rights,  but  were  unable  to  do  so  effectively  on  ac 
count  of  the  absence  of  such  an  established  relationship. 

The  same  unanimity  that  prevailed  in  regard  to  the 
main  objects  of  the  new  organization  extended  also  to 
its  choice  of  methods.  It  was  decided  that  a  series  of 
conferences  would  be  the  best  means  at  once  to 
attract  the  attention  of  all  those  who  might  become 
interested  in  the  proposed  organization,  to  put  the  pres 
ent  situation  of  the  Negro  in  its  entirety  in  the  fore 
ground  of  public  interest  and  to  establish  a  basis  of  fact, 
reasoned  policy  and  even  of  science  for  its  future 
conduct. 

The  first  Conference  was  necessarily  of  a  general  char 
acter.  It  is  hoped  and  believed  that  each  of  the  coming 
conferences  will  be  limited  to  a  more  definite  field, 
and  therefore  give  results  of  a  still  greater  scientific 
value.  The  intention  is,  also,  to  make  them  even  more 
thoroughly  representative  of  the  whole  body  of  opinion 
in  this  country  that  stands  for  all  the  rights  of  the  col 
ored  population  including  equal  opportunity  to  enter 
into  and  to  rise  in  every  field  of  employment,  public  and 
private,  ivithout  exception. 

The  results  of  the  first  Conference  more  than  justified 
the  greatest  hopes  of  its  promoters.  The  programme, 
as  arranged,  while  covering  a  very  broad  field,  showed 
the  feasibility  of  building  up  an  organization  on  these  lines. 
The  character  of  the  delegations  composing  the  Confer 
ence  and  its  final  action  proved  the  possibility  of  secur 
ing  harmony  between  half  a  dozen  different  currents  of 
opinion  favoring  the  Negroes,  already  existing  among 
the  white  population,  and  a  similar  number  of  diverging 
movements  among  the  colored  people  themselves. 


It  is  confidently  believed  that  the  proceedings  of  the 
first  Conference  of  1909  and  the  resolutions  passed  will 
serve  as  a  convincing  appeal  for  public  support,  that  they 
will  bring  not  only  a  very  large  increase  in  the  number 
of  those  attending  the  conference  but  also  new  forces 
which  will  strengthen  it  for  the  work  it  has  already  un 
dertaken,  broaden  its  scope  and  define  still  more  clearly 
the  friendly  attitude  of  all  public-spirited  and  democratic 
citizens. 

In  view  of  the  resolutions  adopted  in  1909  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  state  that  it  is  the  deep  conviction 
of  all  that  not  only  the  ultimate  solution  of  the  problem 
but  the  crying  necessities  of  the  moment  will  be  best  met 
not  by  any  suppression  or  postponement  of  the  fullest 
and  freest  possible  discussion  of  the  question  in  all  its 
aspects,  but  by  bringing  it  into  the  very  foreground  of 
public  attention.  Every  available  means  should  be  adopt 
ed  for  this  purpose,  not  only  investigations  of  the  situa 
tion  in  all  of  its  manifold  forms  and  in  every  section  of 
the  country,  but  also  conferences,  public  meetings, 
speeches  and  articles  by  members  of  the  organization  and 
all  others  interested,  co-operation  with  other  organiza 
tions  and  the  furnishing  to  the  public  press  of  news  hith 
erto  suppressed  or  difficult  to  obtain. 

By  all  these  and  other  means  it  is  hoped  and  believed 
that  the  so-called  Negro  question,  in  its  broader  aspects, 
will  become  more  and  more  a  subject  of  daily  interest 
to  all  classes  of  the  American  people,  until  the  nation 
is  at  last  in  a  mood  to  deal  with  this  momentous  evil 
of  race  discrimination  in  the  thoroughgoing  spirit  with 
which  alone  it  can  be  successfully  handled. 

W.  E.  W. 
NATIONAL  NEGRO  CONFERENCE  HEADQUARTERS, 

500  FIFTH  AVENUE, 
NEW  YORK  CITY. 


Morning  Session,  May  31 
William  Hayes  Ward,  Chairman 


Address   of 

William  Hayes  Ward 

Editor  The  Independent 
New  York 

The  purpose  of  this  conference  is  to  emphasize  in  word 
and,  so  far  as  possible,  in  act,  the  principle  that  equal  jus 
tice  should  be  done  to  man  as  man,  and  particularly  to  the 
Negro,  without  regard  to  race,  color  or  previous  condi 
tion  of  servitude.  It  is  not  strange  that  with  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery,  and  the  legal  and  nominal  grant  of  suf 
frage  and  equal  rights  to  care  for  himself,  there  should 
have  followed,  with  many  among  us,  a  cooling  sympathy, 
or  the  thought  that  our  duty  was  all  done  and  that  now 
the  freedman  could  look  out  for  himself  as  the  rest 'of 
us  do.  As  the  years  have  passed  and  a  new  generation 
has  come  which  has  no  memory  of  the  Civil  War  or  of 
the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  and  no  knowledge  of 
the  efforts  made  during  the  period  of  reconstruction  and 
the  adoption  of  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amend 
ments  to  reduce  the  Negro  back  to  a  condition  of  serf 
dom,  we  need  not  wonder  that  the  old  fervor  of  sympa 
thy  has  much  subsided,  while  at  the  same  time  there  has 
been  a  readiness  to  apologize  for  old  wrongs;  and  we 
have  even  seen  the  effort,  too  often  successful,  to  pervert 
the  history  of  the  old  struggle. 

There  is  an  absolute  divergence  of  view  between  the 
ruling  majority  in  the  South,  who  desire  to  hold  the 

9 


Negro  in  virtual  serfdom,  and  ourselves.  They  are,  in 
a  degree,  honest  in  their  position,  if  not  Christian.  They 
believe  that  the  Negro  is  essentially  inferior,  something 
less  than  fully  human,  half  a  brute,  and  incapable  of 
reaching  the  standard  of  civilization.  This  is  an  ignor 
ant  position,  but  yet  actually  held  and  believed.  I  sup 
pose  that  it  is  not  generally  known  what  is  the  scientific 
basis  of  that  popular  opinion  which  still  finds  its  ex 
pression  in  speeches,  editorials,  and  books,  and  even  in 
popular  novels  and  plays.  For  that  belief  the  respon 
sibility  rests  on  a  book  which  for  some  years  before  the 
Civil  War  had  great  circulation  and  influence,  and  which 
was  the  armory  from  which  the  defenders  of  slavery 
drew  their  weapons  and  ammunition.  It  was  entitled 
'The  Types  of  Mankind"  by  Nott  and  Glidden.  Dr.  Nott 
was  a  physician  and  he  contributed  to  the  work  all  the 
data  of  anatomy  and  ethnology  which  could  be  gathered 
to  show  the  physical  and  mental  inferiority  of  the  Negro. 
Particularly  he  argued  that  the  smaller  brain  and  simpler 
brain  structure  of  the  Negro  made  it  absolutely  impossi 
ble  that  he  could  ever  rise  to  be  anything  more  than  an 
inferior  and  subject  race.  Mr.  Glidden  had  been  a  trav 
eler  in  Egypt,  somewhat  of  a  student  of  its  antiquities, 
and  he  contributed  the  evidence  that  in  the  time  of  the 
Egyptian  grandeur  the  Negro  was  also  subject  and 
slave;  and  to  this  he  added  all  the  proofs  possible  to 
show  the  degraded  condition  of  the  various  Negro  tribes, 
their  cannibalism  and  sensuality,  their  resistance  to  civi 
lization,  and  the  conclusion  that  to  them  slavery  has 
been  the  greatest  blessing.  The  book  had  a  great  vogue. 
It  claimed  to  give  the  last  word  of  science.  Its  con 
clusions  were  very  pleasing  to  those  who  profited  by 
slavery,  and  to  this  day,  while  the  book  is  forgotten,  its 
assertions  are  repeated  as  if  they  were  still  uncontra- 
dicted,  and  a  multitude  of  people  believe  them  true. 
Doubtless  Dr.  Nott  believed  them  true.  Immediately 

TO 


after  the  Civil  War  he  had  occasion  to  reiterate  them  with 
intense  and  personal  emphasis.  He  was  at  the  head  of 
a  medical  school  in  Mobile,  Alabama.  The  school  was 
broken  up,  and  the  premises  vacated.  General  O.  O. 
Howard,  at  the  head  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  seized 
the  building  for  a  school  for  Negroes.  It  was  actually 
an  attempt  to  disprove  the  assertions  which  Dr.  Nott 
had  made  of  Negro  incapacity.  Dr.  Nott  was  most  in 
dignant  and  utterly  outraged.  He  wrote  a  pamphlet  in 
protest,  a  copy  of  which  I  have  in  my  hands,  in  which 
he  not  only  bitterly  assailed  our  government  for  seizing 
the  premises,  but  with  all  the  fury  of  an  old  prophet  he 
foretold  the  sure  failure  of  emancipation.  He  declared 
that  the  Negro  could  not  support  himself,  that  he  would 
starve  to  death,  unless  the  country,  that  is,  the  North, 
which  had  emancipated  him,  should  feed  and  clothe  him 
as  a  pauper.  Let  me  read  a  few  sentences  which  are 
mere  fragments  of  the  entire  argument. 

"History  proves  indisputably  that  a  superior  and  an 
inferior  race  cannot  live  together  practically  on  any  other 
terms  than  that  of  master  and  slave,  and  that  the 
inferior  race,  like  the  Indians,  must  be  expelled  or  ex 
terminated." 

"I  was  born  among  the  Negroes  of  the  South,  have 
spent  many  years  in  the  study  of  their  natural  and  civil 
history,  and  feel  confident  in  the  prediction  that  they  are 
doomed  to  extermination  which  is  being  cruelly  hastened 
by  the  unwise  action  of  a  party  that  will  not  study  and 
comprehend  the  subject  it  is  dealing  with.  The  Negro 
has  an  instinctive  and  unconquerable  antipathy  to  steady 
agricultural  labor,  and  must  therefore  be  gradually  sup 
planted  by  the  whites,  whose  energy,  industry  and  in 
telligence  will  rule  in  this  and  all  other  important  pur 
suits." 

"The  blacks,  like  the  American  Indians,  Tartars,  and 
other  nomadic  races,  are  instinctively  opposed  to  agri- 

i  j 


cultural  labor,  and  no  necessity  can  drive  them  to  it. 
Slavery  is  the  normal  condition  of  the  Negro,  the  most 
advantageous  to  him,  and  the  most  ruinous,  in  the  end, 
to  a  white  nation. 

"After  removing  your  Bureau  and  the  troops,  I  see 
but  one  duty  remaining  for  you  to  perform,  and  that 
is,  to  assist  us  in  feeding  and  clothing  colored  paupers. 
The  old,  the  infirm,  the  women  and  children,  the  worth 
less  vagrants,  will  form  a  burden  that  we  are  unable  to 
carry.  As  long  as  women  and  children  were  property, 
and  the  unproductive  child  was  one  day  to  be  a  profit 
able  producer,  the  owners  could  afford  to  feed  women 
and  children  that  constitute  one-half  this  population.  All 
this  is  now  changed,  and  the  capital  of  the  South  is  no 
longer  adequate  to  provide  for  such  enormous  charity. 

"I  say,  then,  that  you  have  brought  this  state  of  things 
upon  the  South,  in  spite  of  remonstrances,  and  you  must 
'pav  out'  or  see  the  victims  of  your  policy  starve," 

Such  was  the  prophecy  of  the  leading  ethnologist  whose 
science  taught  and  still  teaches  a  large  section  of  our 
people.  He  declared  that  the  Negro  could  never  be  fit 
to  live  on  equal  terms  with  the  white,  to  be  anything 
,more  than  a  slave,  because  nature  had  given  him  nine 
I/ less  cubic  inches  of  brain  than  she  had  given  us  of  the 
Germanic  stock.  Now  consider  how  this  gloomy  pro 
phecy  with  all  its  science  has  been  exploded.  The  Negro 
freedman  has  proven  that  he  is  willing  to  work,  and 
that  he  is  capable  of  thrift.  He  has  supported  himself 
and  his  dependent  children  and  invalids.  He  has  been 
the  chief  agricultural  producer  in  the  southern  states, 
and  in  twenty  years  had  doubled  the  cotton  crops,  and 
nearly  quadrupled  other  farm  products.  By  the  last 
census  34%  of  the  white  people  of  Massachusetts  owned 
their  homes,  but  37%  of  the  Negroes  of  Virginia  owned 
theirs. 

Negroes  own  more  than  177,000  farms  in  the  country, 

12 


and  operate  581,000  more,  a  total  of  38,250,000  acres. 
In  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  there  are  more  Negro  farm 
owners  than  white.  .  Thus  a  large  part  of  the  agricultu 
ral  South  is  coming  into  the  possession  of  Negroes.  As 
to  pauperism  there  are  over  a  third  more  white  paupers 
per  thousand  than  Negro.  And  meanwhile  the  less  than 
four  million  Negroes  when  Dr.  Nott  was  writing  have 
increased  to  about  ten  million.  That  does  not  look  like 
extermination. 


RACE  DIFFERENTIATION— RACE 
CHARACTERISTICS 

Livingston  Farrand  M.  D. 

Professor  of  c-/4nthropology 
Columbia  University 

I  have  been  asked  to  say  a  word  here  this  morning  on 
the  general  problem  of  race  differentiation  and  race 
characteristics  from  the  anthropological  standpoint;  and 
I  am  afraid  I  must  indulge  in  what  I  wish  particularly  to 
warn  against,  and  that  is,  generalities,  because  of  the 
short  time  at  my  disposal. 

If  there  is  one  subject  in  the  discussion  of  which  cau 
tion  is  to  be  observed  it  is  this  very  theme  which  we 
are  here  to  consider.  There  is  no  field  of  investigation 
in  which  generalization  is  more  frequent  or  in  which  it 
is  more  often  unjustifiable.  At  the  same  time  during 
recent  years  when  the  problem  has  been  actively  inves 
tigated  it  would  seem  that  certain  trends  of  authorita 
tive  opinion  have  appeared,  some  of  which  it  may  be 
worth  mentioning. 

Let  me  add  another  word  of  explanation,  and  that  is 
with  regard  to  the  term  "race."  I  believe  that  word 
to  be  at  the  present  time  in  hopeless  disrepute.  We  do 
not  know  what  it  means  and  are  unable  to  agree  upon 
an  arbitrary  definition  of  it.  While  I  shall  use  the 
word .  T  wish  it  distinctly  understood  that  I  use  it  in  a 
general  and  popular  sense. 


When  we  are  speaking  of  race  differentiations  we  are 
not  necessarily  dealing  with  permanent  or  invariable  dif 
ferences,  but  are  simply  using  a  convenient  term  and 
vehicle  of  discussion.  Any  classification  of  so-called 
"races"  becomes  a  pure  matter  of  description,  and,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  accuracy,  physical  characteristics 
afford  perhaps  the  most  defensible  basis  for  such  classi 
fication.  At  the  same  time,  no  matter  what  physical  fac 
tor  may  be  taken  as  a  criterion,  we  find  that  the  varia 
tions  within  the  groups  so  defined  are  so  wide  as  to  cause 
overlapping  in  every  direction  and  make  definite  conclu 
sions  difficult,  or  even  impossible.  This  difficulty  is  il 
lustrated  as  well  by  the  criterion  of  skin  color  as  any 
other,  and  yet  it  is  probably  the  most  commonly  used 
and  certainly  the  most  convenient  of  any  of  the  physical 
factors  suggested  as  a  basis. 

It  has  been  hoped  that  the  accurate  measurements  of 
the  skull  would  afford  material  of  a  character  so  defi 
nite  that  a  safe  foundation  might  be  afforded,  and  yet 
in  recent  years  it  has  become  evident  that  even  so  rela 
tively  stable  a  character  as  the  shape  of  the  head  exhibits 
variability  of  the  most  pronounced  type.  It  has  recently 
been  shown  that  among  the  Jews,  distributed  as  they  are 
throughout  the  civilized  world  among  different  racial 
groups  of  all  kinds  and  yet  retaining  to  a  marked  degree 
an  apparent  purity  of  stock  or  race,  the  head  form 
varies  according  to  the  environment,  that  is,  it  tends  to 
approach  the  head  form  of  the  group  among  which  the 
given  Jews  in  question  may  reside. 

All  this  by  way  of  caution  as  to  the  difficulty  in  reach 
ing  a  classification  acceptable  to  even  a  small  number  of 
anthropologists  or  others  competent  to  form  an  opinion. 

The  problem  which  more  immediately  concerns  a  con 
ference  such  as  this  is  the  question  whether  it  is  possible 
from  an  anthropological  standpoint  to  classify  groups 
of  men  upon  a  psychological  basis.  In  other  words, 

15 


are  there  permanent  mental  or  psychological  differences 
which  will  permit  definite  group  differentiations? 

In  attacking  this  problem  we  are  forced  to  deal  with 
the  mental  expressions  and  mental  reactions  of  men  in 
groups  which  naturally  exhibit  themselves  as  customs. 
That  there  are  differences  in  such  mental  expressions  no 
one  can  deny.  The  Australian  savage  differs  from  the 
German  and  the  Negro  differs  from  the  Chinaman,  the 
problem  being  to  determine  upon  what  these  differences 
of  mental  expression  ultimately  rest. 

It  is  commonly  held  that  two  possible  lines  of  expla 
nation  are  open.  These  psychological  differences  may 
represent  actual  differences  in  mental  organization,  which 
in  turn  represent  different  degrees  of  mental  evolution, 
or,  they  may  be  the  results  simply  of  the  mental  experi 
ences  of  the  individuals  which  constitute  the  groups  in 
question.  In  other  words,  there  may  be  differences  of 
mental  capacity  representing  the  grades  of  development, 
or  they  may  be  the  result  of  differences  of  environment 
and  training  which  modify  the  mental  contents  of  the  in 
dividuals  of  the  groups,  but  which  do  not  necessarily 
represent  any  appreciable  difference  in  mental  organiza 
tion  or  development. 

The  question  as  it  is  ordinarily  put  resolves  itself  into 
this :  Does  civilized  man  represent  a  higher  stage  of  men 
tal  evolution  than  the  savage? 

In  considering  the  problem  we  must  remember  that  we 
are  apt  to  form  our  judgments  very  largely  upon 
differences  of  culture,  and  in  so  doing  we  are  apt  to  con 
fuse  a  perfectly  obvious  cultural  evolution  with  a  perfect 
ly  problematical  mental  evolution.  The  two  terms  are 
by  no  means  synonymous.  It  seems  clear  that  one  may 
accumulate  the  products  of  men's  minds  and  hand  over 
the  material  so  assembled  to  the  child,  which  process  car 
ried  on  throughout  a  given  group  will  necessarily  pro 
duce  a  higher  stage  of  culture  without  making  necessari- 

16 


ly  one  iota  of  difference  in  the  initial  mental  capacity  of 
the  individuals  so  treated. 

There  is  another  point  which  perhaps  ought  to  be 
considered  as  preliminary,  and  that  is  the  light  which 
anatomical  considerations  might  throw  upon  the  question. 
I  am  very  glad  to  see  that  this  aspect  of  the  subject  is 
to  be  discussed  by  one  far  jriore  qualified  than  I — Profes 
sor  Wilder — who  is  to  follow  me  this  morning.  But  for 
fear  Dr.  Wilder  will  not  say  just  what  I  would  like  him 
to  say  let  me  speak  for  a  moment  of  my  own  point  of 
view. 

If  we  consider  the  brain,  which  it  is  agreed  is  the 
anatomical  factor  most  closely  concerned  with  the  ques 
tion,  from  the  point  of  view  of  size,  weight,  and  complex 
ity,  we  shall  find  undoubtedly  certain  differences  existing 
between  the  brains  of  one  racial  group  and  those  of  an 
other  racial  group.  It  is  true  that  a  large  series  of  brains 
from  Central  African  Negroes  compared  with  an  equal 
number  taken  at  random  from  Central  Europe  would 
show  a  slightly  less  degree  of  size  and  weight  in  the  Afri 
can  brains  as  compared  with  the  European.  On  the  other 
hand  this  would  simply  mean  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
two  series  so  compared  would  coincide  and  it  would  only 
be  in  the  extreme  members  of  the  two  groups  that  any 
recognizable  differences  would  appear.  Stated  in  another 
way  it  appears  that  the  variation  within  each  group  is  so 
wide  that  for  nearly  every  African  brain  there  would  be 
a  corresponding  European  brain  so  far  as  size  and  weight 
are  concerned.  This  being  the  case  it  seems  obvious  to 
any  candid  mind  that  inferences  with  regard  to  the  de 
velopment  of  groups  so  treated  are  extremely  dangerous 
and  that  inferences  with  regard  to  the  mental  develop 
ment  of  the  groups  so  considered  are  entirely  unjustifi 
able.  This  is  naturally  still  more  true  from  the  fact  that 
we  are  quite  unable  to  state  the  correlation  which  may 
exist  between  mental  capacity  and  brain  development. 

17 


Let  us  not,  however,  fall  into  the  similar  error  on  the 
other  side  and  deny  with  equally  indefensible  dogmatism 
that  such  differences  as  do  exist  have  no  significance  and 
can  be  left  entirely  out  of  account.  The  only  statement 
which  it  seems  to  me  will  bear  the  scrutiny  of  candid 
science  is  that  thus  far  the  investigations  of  this  point 
are  negative. 

Returning  again  to  the  question  of  psychology  it  is 
obvious  that  there  are  differences  of  mental  expression 
in  different  groups  of  men.  On  the  other  hand  if  we 
inspect  these  groups  broadly  we  find  it  equally  obvious 
that  the  general  mental  processes  are  similar  or  identical. 
If  we  attempt  to  decide  whether  the  mental  capacity,  so- 
called,  of  one  group  of  men  is  greater  or  less  than  that 
of  another  group  of  men  we  are  met  at  once  by  the  dif 
ficulty  of  determining  a  criterion  by  which  we  may  judge 
such  differences.  I  have  never  yet  been  able  to  find  psy 
chologists  who  could  lay  down  exact  standards  appli 
cable  to  field  observation  which  could  be  used  in  solving 
this  particular  problem. 

If  we  inspect  the  more  obvious  conscious  processes 
such  as  sense  perception  there  is  certainly  no  difference 
to  be  described.  The  acuteness  of  vision  of  the  English 
man  and  the  American  Indian  are  perfectly  comparable 
The  Indian  or  Australian  may  exhibit  marvellous  powers 
in  following  trails  or  in  tracking  game,  but  it  has  been 
shown  that  this  skill  is  based  not  upon  increased  visual 
acuteness  but  upon  training  in  perception  of  certain  stim 
uli  through  a  life  of  necessity.  The  same  principle  holds 
true  of  differences  which  present  themselves  in  the  other 
senses. 

If  we  consider  certain  of  the  more  complex  mental 
processes  in  which  it  might  be  thought  that  differences 
in  kind  might  exist  it  seems  to  me  that  the  results  of 
analysis  are  similar  to  those  obtained  in  an  inspection  of 
the  simpler  processes. 

18 


It  has  often  been  held  that  the  ability  to  inhibit  im 
pulses  is  a  mark  of  high  mental  development,  whether 
individual  or  racial.  Inhibition  expresses  itself  ordi 
narily  in  the  individual  as  self-control,  the  ability  to 
check  impulse  to  action  of  one  sort  or  another,  and  it 
has  been  assumed  that  the  savage  or  more  primitive  in 
dividual  is  characterized  by  a  lack  of  self-control;  that 
is  that  he  tends  to  yield  to  the  impulse  of  the  moment 
whatever  it  may  be.  It  would  seem  that  an  inspection  of 
the  evidence  would  not  bear  out  this  contention.  It  is 
clear  that  the  self-control  exerted  by  the  individual  in 
any  group  is  to  a  large  extent  a  conventional  one.  He 
is  taught  to  inhibit  along  certain  lines  in  certain  groups, 
and  what  is  conventional  or  good  form  for  the  individual 
in  one  group  is  not  necessarily  so  in  another.  You  and 
I  are  taught  from  childhood  to  inhibit  certain  reactions 
and  expressions  and  as  we  grow  older  such  repression 
becomes  habitual  with  us.  The  same  is  true  of  the  savage. 

It  was  impressed  upon  the  American  Indian  from  his  " 
earliest  days  that  if  he  were  put  to  torture  by  his  enemies 
he  was  not  to  give  way  to  any  expression  of  pain,  but 
to  endure  the  utmost  agony  without  a  moan.  Should 
the  crucial  test  arrive  he  seldom  failed  to  meet  the  de 
mand,  but  that  same  Indian  in  the  bosom  of  his  family 
would  exhibit  behavior  of  the  most  childish  character 
over  an  injury  of  the  slightest  kind.  Where  there  is  no 
necessity  or  conventional  call  for  inhibition  he  does  not 
exhibit  it. 

Further,  the  savage  often  exhibits  self-control  under 
conditions  where  you  and  I  would  be  incapable  of  it. 
The  Eskimo  may  be  in  a  state  of  semi-starvation  with 
seals  lying  all  around  him  on  the  ice,  yet  if  for  religious 
reasons  a  taboo  has  been  placed  upon  these  seals  the 
Eskimo  will  starve  to  death  before  he  will  kill  and  eat 
one.  You  and  I  would  not  do  that.  Your  religious  pre 
judice  and  mine  would  disappear  in  the  face  of  hunger 


and  the  innate  nutritive  impulse.  What  is  true  of  the 
Indian  or  the  Eskimo  is  true  of  the  Negro,  Australian, 
and  every  other  primitive  group.  The  direction  which 
the  inhibition  of  impulse  or  self-control  shall  take  is 
dependent  largely  upon  training  and  convention,  and  so 
far  as  we  can  see  does  not  exhibit  particular  differences 
of  degree  or  strength. 

Probably  equal  attention  has  been  given  to  the  ques 
tion  of  the  evolution  of  ethics.  It  seems  clear  that  there 
are  two  problems  involved  in  this  discussion,  one  the  evo 
lution  of  ethical  standards  as  such,  and  the  other  the  de 
gree  of  conformity  to  these  standards,  whatever  they  may 
be,  as  exhibited  by  different  racial  groups.  We  find,  of 
course,  that  different  standards  exist  in  different  groups 
and  that  what  is  right  in  one  group  may  not  be  right  in 
another,  or  what  is  right  at  one  time  may  not  be  right 
at  another,  but  the  point  which  concerns  us,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  chiefly  the  degree  of  conformity  to  the  standards 
recognized  by  particular  groups  rather  than  the  standards 
themselves.  Viewed  in  this  way  the  strictness  of  con 
formity  to  ethical  standards  among  savages  is  quite  com 
parable  to  that  which  exists  among  civilized  man. 

Time  does  not  permit  discussion  of  this  point  in  de 
tail,  but  ethnology  is  full  of  evidence  to  that  end. 

If  I  may  be  permitted  to  sum  up  these  discursive  re 
marks  I  have  been  making  and  to  express  what  I  believe 
is  the  point  of  view  of  an  increasing  school  of  anthropolo 
gists,  it  is  that  the  apparent  differences  of  mental  capacity 
in  different  groups  of  men  are  probably  to  be  assigned 
much  more  to  the  contents  of  the  minds  of  the  individuals 
of  these  groups  than  to  any  inherent  differences  of  men 
tal  capacity  which  would  indicate  a  recognizable  differ 
ence  of  mental  evolution. 

I  don't  believe  it  is  possible,  I  don't  believe  it  is  right 
to  say  that  there  are  no  differences  of  degree  of  evolu 
tion  between  different  groups.  Such  a  thing,  of  course, 

20 


is  possible  theoretically  and  I  believe  it  is  to  a  certain  ex 
tent  actually.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  certain 
selection  has  operated  which  would  have  produced  pos 
sible  differences  of  mental  organization,  but  let  us  not 
forget  that  the  time  during  which  such  special  selection 
can  have  operated  is  extremely  short  and  that  further 
it  is  equally  possible  that  a  similar  selection  may  have  been 
going  on  in  savage  groups  where  conditions  have  not  been 
favorable  for  the  development  of  a  culture  to  the  point 
which  we  call  civilization. 

Now  I  will  inhibit.  In  conclusion  I  wish  to  bring 
out  this  one  point — that  it  is  absolutely  unjustifiable  to 
assert  that  there  is  trustworthy  evidence  for  the  view 
that  marked  differences  of  mental  capacity  between  the 
different  races  exist;  that  if  they  exist  they  are  certainly 
of  a  much  slighter  extent  than  would  appear  from  hasty 
observation.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  equally  unjustifi 
able  to  assert  that  no  differences  exist. 

A  very  wise  remark  was  made  a  few  years  ago  by  an 
American  sociologist  when  he  said :  "It  may  be  true  that 
blood  will  tell,  but  we  must  not  be  too  hasty  in  saying 
just  what  it  is  that  the  blood  tells,  or  which  particular 
blood  it  is  that  speaks." 


21 


THE  BRAIN  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
NEGRO 

Burt  G.  Wilder 

Professor  of  Neurology  and  Vertebrate 
Zoology  in  Cornell  University 

[The  address  on  this  subject,  as  delivered  extemporaneously  at 
the  Negro  Conference,  was  prepared  within  a  necessarily  lim 
ited  time.  For  present  publication  it  has  been  recast  and  much 
new  material  has  been  added,  mainly  in  the  form  of  Notes, 
Tables,  Illustrations,  and  a  List  of  Publications  referred  to.] 

Do  any  physical  characteristics  of  the  brain  of  the 
American  Negro  warrant  discrimination  against  him,  as 
such  ? 

The  American  Negro  is  on  trial,  not  for  his  life  but 
for  the  recognition  of  his  status,  his  rights  and  his 
opportunities.  At  this,  as  at  most  other  trials,  experts 
disagree.  Fortunately,  against  none  of  them  can  be 
laid  the  charge  of  being  influenced  by  the  hope  of 
"power  or  pelf."  But  prepossessions  may  result  from 
circumstances,  and  even  in  science  the  "personal  equa 
tion"  must  be  reckoned  with.  Approximate  impartiality 
is  claimed  by  me  because,  on  the  one  hand,  as  a  believer 
in  the  derivation  of  the  human  body  from  some  anthro 
poid  stock,  I  incline  to  minimize  the  differences  be 
tween  man  and  the  higher  apes ;  and  because,  on  the 
other,  during  both  my  army  and  university  experiences, 
there  have  been  occasions  when  I  was  tempted  to 
exclaim,  "Yes,  a  white  man  is  as  worthy  as  a  colored 
man — provided  he  behaves  himself  as  well." 

22 


To  the  initial  question  jny  reply  is,  in  brief :  Respect 
ing  the  brains  of  American  Negroes  there  are  known 
to  me  no  facts,  deductions,  or  arguments  that,  in  my 
opinion,  justify  withholding  from  men  of  African  de 
scent,  as  such,  any  civil  or  political  rights  or  any  educa 
tional  or  industrial  opportunities1  that  are  enjoyed  by 
whites2  of  equal  character,  intelligence,  and  property. 

To  the  above  negative  testimony  I  add  the  affirma 
tion,  based  upon  personal  observation,  that  the  title  to 
such  rights  and  opportunities  was  earned  during  the 
Civil  War  by  the  general  conduct  of  soldiers  of  African 
descent,  by  their  valor,  by  their  initiative  under  trying 
conditions,  and  by  their  deliberate  self-sacrifice  for  the 
sake  of  a  principle. 

The  consideration  of  special  aspects  of  the  subject 
may  well  be  prefaced  by  two  general  declarations  re 
specting  the  African  race  by  the  late  Professor  Huxley; 

1.  Among  the  matters   here  named   should  not  be   interjected 
questions  of  social  or  marital  relations ;  they  are  no  more  ger 
mane  than  religious  affiliations.      The  case  has  been  well  stated 
by  President  Kilgo   (South  Atlantic  Quarterly,  vol  2,  p.  383)  : 
"Social  equality  is  everywhere  a  matter  of  individual  choice.  Each 
man   chooses   his   companions   and   on   the   grounds   of   personal 
congeniality.     The  Negroes  are  not  socially  equal  among  them 
selves,  neither  are  the  white  people,  and  the  wild  cry  that  the 
time  will  come  when  one  man  will  be  forced  to  associate  with 
another  contrary  to  his  wishes  is  a  nightmare  •  and  a  political 
hocus-pocus."     Let  me  say  here  that  among  the  cleanest — phys 
ically   and   morally — men   that   I   have   known   have  been    some 
of  African   descent.      As  to  the  interdiction  of  legal  intermar 
riage,  but  for  the  tragic  aspect  of  the  whole  subject  there  would 
be  something  ludicrously  inconsistent  in  the  horror  at  the  mere 
entrance  of  an  African  male  into  a  southern  mansion  pother- 
wise  than  in  a  menial  capacity)    when   far  closer  relations  of 
occupants  of  those  mansions  with  African  females  are  attested 
by  the  numerous  mulattoes,  some  of  them  rightly  bearing  "first 
family"  names. 

2.  To  avoid  complications  all  the  statements  in   this   address 
refer  to  males  only.      Unless   otherwise   stated,   by  whites   are 
meant   male    Caucasians   of   the   United    States   or   Canada;    by 
Negroes,  Afro-Americans,  men  of  African  descent  in  the  same 
countries. 

23 


they  exemplify  the  clearness,  consistency,  conciseness, 
and  correctness  that  characterize  his  writings;  if  they 
lack  completeness  (the  last  of  the  "five  CV  that  I  have 
for  many  years  commended  to  my  pupils)  it  is  because 
nearly  half  a  century  has  elapsed  since  they  were 
penned,,  and  because  he  had  had  no  opportunity  of  ob 
serving  the  modern  American  Negro  and  his  treatment 
by  certain  individuals  and  communities : 

"Middle  Africa  exhibits  a  new  type  of  humanity  in 
the  Negro,  with  his  dark  skin,  woolly  hair,  projecting 
jaws,  and  thick  lips.  As  a  rule,  the  skull  of  the  Negro  is 
remarkably  long;  it  rarely  approaches  the  broad  type, 
and  never  exhibits  the  roundness  of  the  Mongolian. 
A  cultivator  of  the  ground  and  dwelling  in  villages;  a 
maker  of  pottery,  and  a  worker  in  the  useful  as  well 
as  ornamental  metals;  employing  the  bow  and  arrow  as 
well  as  the  spear,  the  typical  Negro  stands  high  in 
point  of  civilization  above  the  Australian." — Essays, 
vol.  7,  p.  233. 

"It  may  be  quite  true  that  some  Negroes  are  better 
than  some3  white  men ;  but  no  rational  man,  cognisant  of 
the  facts,  believes  that  the  average  Negro  is  the  equal, 
still  less  the  superior,  of  the  average  white  man.  And,  if 
this  be  true,  when  all  his  disabilities  are  removed,  and 
our  prognathous  relative  has  a  fair  field  and  no  favour, 
as  well  as  no  oppressor,4  it  is  simply  incredible  that  he 
will  be  able  to  compete  successfully  with  his  bigger- 
brained  and  smaller-jawed  rival,  in  a  contest  which  is 
to  be  carried  on  by  thoughts  and  not  by  bites." — Essays, 
vol.  3,  p.  67. 

3.  Were  this  valiant  champion  of  justice  alive  to-day  and  fa 
miliar   with   the    character    and    achievements    of    leading   Afro- 
Americans  he   might  change   "some"   in   the  first  line  to   many, 
or     even     echo     the     opinion     of     the     former     editor     of     the 
South  Atlantic  Quarterly,  vol.  2,  p.  299. 

4.  Not  to  adduce  more  savage  methods,  is  oppression — or  mere 
ly  repression — 'the  appropriate  term  for  the  exclusion  of  a  Uni 
versity  professor  of  African  descent   from  a  public  library   for 
which  he  and  his  fellows  are  taxed? 

24 


In  the  foregoing  paragraph  Huxley  meant,  of  course, 
that  prognathism  is  more  common  among  Africans  than 
Caucasians ;  but  every  observer  knows  that  it  is  by 
no  means  either  constant  with  the  former  or  absent  with 
the  latter.  In  fact,  by  far  the  most  prognathous  human 
being  that  I  ever  saw  was  a  trained  violinist  from  the 
interior  of  Europe.  In  the  museum  of  Cornell  Univer 
sity  the  following  incident  was  witnessed  by  me : 
Among  a  party  of  visiting  youths  were  a  "low-down" 
Negro  and  a  rough  Irishman.  From  opposite  direc 
tions  they  chanced  to  approach  a  stuffed  chimpanzee. 
As  each  caught  sight  of  it  he  raised  his  finger  and 
pointed,  with  a  grin,  at  the  other  fellow.  The  resem 
blance  was  not  a  matter  of  race,  but,  as  Prof.  Farrand 
has  remarked,  .of  individual  culture. 

It  will  be  noted  that,  like  all  other  scientists  known 
to  me,  Huxley  recognizes  the  African  as  one  of  the 
human  races.  The  contrary  view  is  doubtless  enter 
tained  by  some,  but  as  yet,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  it  has 
been  publicly  formulated  only  by  a  clergyman  of  the 
Lutheran  denomination,  Rev.  G.  C.  H.  Hasskarl.  In  the 
subtitle  of  his  little  book,  'The  Missing  Link"  (1898), 
is  the  query,  "Has  the  Negro  a  Soul?"  His  own  reply 
seems  to  be  contained  in  the  following  passages : 

"The  Negro  is  a  separate  and  distinct  species  of  the 
genus  homo  from  Adam  and  Eve";  p.  29.  "The  Negro 
is  not  a  human  being" ;  p.  28.  "He  is  inevitably  a  beast 
and  as  a  beast  entered  the  ark" ;  p.  29.  "The  differ 
ence  between  the  white  man  immortal  and  the  Negro 
soulless";  p.  33.° 

"The  Missing  Link"  is  evidently  based  upon  narrow 
and  prejudiced  interpretations  of  the  literal  sense  of 
certain  passages  of  Scripture,  and  the  arguments  would 

5.  A  letter  from  Mr.  Hasskarl,  dated  Williamsport,  Pa.,  Dec. 
24,  1909,  says :  "For  want  of  time  I  am  unable  at  present  to 
enter  into  a  discussion  of  your  soul-problem  concerning  the 

25 


probably  appeal  only  to  persons  of  comparatively  lim 
ited  knowledge  and  influence.  But  no  such  mitigating 
circumstances  apply  in  the  case  of  a  liberally  educated 
writer  who  had  every  opportunity  for  ascertaining  the 
facts  and  whose  statements  would  undoubtedly  and  ma 
terially  affect  the  numerous  readers  —  intelligent  but 
uninformed — of  a  popular  periodical. 

In  order  to  avert  further  misapprehension — of  which 
there  has  been  too  much  already — this  matter  shall  be 
told,  so  far  as  practicable,  in  selections  from  a  corre 
spondence  between  Mr.  Owen  Wister6  and  myself.  In 
terpolations  are  in  brackets. 

My  second  letter  to  Mr.  Wister  was  dated  Dec.  29, 
1905,  and  ran  as  follows : 

"I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt,  yesterday,  of  the 
reply  to  my  queries  of  the  2Oth.  Pardon  my  persistence, 
but  there  is  more  to  be  said.  In  your  [very  interest 
ing]  story,  "Lady  Baltimore,"  in  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post  of  Dec.  9th,  the  relator,  evidently  a  man  of  at 
least  average  intelligence  and  discrimination,  when  shown 
three  skulls,  viz.,  of  an  Aryan  (ordinary  white),  of  a 
gorilla,  and  of  a  South  Carolina  'nigger'  (to  .quote  a 
word  that  I  would  not  otherwise  employ),  recognizes 

Negro.  In  about  two  months  there  will  be  out  a  publication  of 
mine  on  Christian  Pedagogy.  In  it  I  am  treating  of  the  souls 
of  both  man  and  beast,  and  when  you  have  examined  the  same 
you  will  understand  what  I  mean  by  the  adjective  'soulless' 
when  speaking  of  the  Negro  in  contrast  to  the  white  man." 

"The  Missing  Link"  was  discussed  by  several  colored  clergy 
men  in  the  New  York  Tribune  for  May  28  and  29,  1899. 

As  reported  in  the  Tribune  for  February  4,  1910,  the  Rev.  E. 
H.  Richards,  for  thirty  years  a  missionary  in  Uganda,  Africa, 
believes  that  the  Negro  is  descended  from  "one  of  several 
brothers  of  Adam." 

6.  Strictly  speaking  the  correspondence  was  with  the  private 
secretary  of  Mr.  Wister.  That  the  latter  evidently  did  not 
know  me  from  Adam — or  Ham — was,  of  course,  a  blow  to  my 
self-esteem;  it  may  also  be  interpreted  as  signifying  that,  while 
the  scientist  must  have  romance,  the  novelist  may — or  sometimes 
thinks  he  may — dispense  with  science. 

26 


a  'gap'  between  the  first  and  the  other  two,  but  between 
those  two  a  'brotherhood,  a  kinship  which  stares  you 
in  the  face';  he  avows  that  'the  difference  in  their  names 
was  the  only  difference  he  saw  between  them,'  e.g.,  be 
tween  the  skulls  of  a  gorilla  and  of  a  South  Carolina 
Negro. 

"To  my  inquiry  as  to  whether  this  comparison  was 
intended  to  indicate  merely  your  own  impression  or  was 
based  upon  some  anthropologic  authority,  you  reply 
that  'it  incorporates  no  special  knowledge,  but  only 
information  of  the  ordinary  kind  which  is  to  be  found 
in  any  museum  of  anatomy  or  academy  of  natural 
sciences.' 

"Before  expressing  my  own  opinion  permit  me  to  call 
your  attention  to  the  following  paragraph  from  the 
first  scientific  account  of  the  gorilla  in  the  Boston 
Journal  of  Natural  History,  vol.  5,  Aug.  18,  1847.  Its 
author,  Professor  Jeffries  Wyman  of  Harvard  Univer 
sity,  was  noted  for  his  freedom  from  prejudice,  for 
his  accuracy  of  observation,  and  for  his  clearness  of 
expression.  He  says  (using  orang  as  a  general  name 
for  the  tailless  or  anthropoid  apes,  and  thus  as  embrac 
ing  not  only  the  true  orang  but  the  chimpanzee  and  the 
gorilla)  :  'Any  anatomist  who  will  take  the  trouble 
to  compare  the  skeletons  of  the  Negro  and  the  orang 
cannot  fail  to  be  struck  at  sight  with  the  wide  gap 
which  separates  them.  The  differences  between  the 
cranium,  etc.,  in  the  Negro  and  the  Caucasian  [here 
used,  like  your  Aryan,  as  a  term  for  the  white  race] 
sinks  into  comparative  insignificance  when  compared 
with  the  vast  difference  which  exists  between  the  con 
formation  of  the  same  parts  in  the  Negro  and  the 
orang.' 

"Under  Jeffries  Wyman  I  began  to  compare  the  skulls 
of  men  and  apes  in  the  fall  of  1859,  nor  has  my  interest 
in  them  ceased  merely  because  it  is  now  surpassed  by 
my  interest  in  their  brains.  Not  to  risk  the  'mixing 
up  of  things,'  which  Mrs.  Carlyle  so  aptly  denounced  as 

27 


'the  great  bad,'  let  us  agree  that  (i)  There  are  racial 
differences;  and  (2)  When  all  things  are  considered, 
the  whites  have  advanced  further  than  the  blacks  from 
our  [presumed]  ape-like  ancestors.7 

"But  I  believe  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge 
warrants  the  following  propositions :  First,  in  an  as 
semblage  of  adult  male  skulls  of  the  apes  and  the  various 
human  races  a  child  would  unhesitatingly  separate  the 
men  from  the  apes,  and  might  go  further  and  set  apart 
the  gorilla  by  reason  of  the  prominent  bony  crests. 
Secondly,  among  three  skulls  such  as  are  indicated  in 
your  story  the  expert  anatomist  might  recognize  one  as 
presenting  certain  features  that  are  more  often  found 
in  Africans ;  but  even  to  him,  and,  a  fortiori,  to  the  lay 
man,  these  peculiarities,  as  compared  (to  use  Wyman's 
phrase)  with  the  Vast  difference  between  the  Negro  and 
the  gorilla,  would  sink  into  comparative  insignificance.' 

'The  validity  of  these  propositions  may  be  ascertained 
from  any  comparative  anatomist  or  from  the  collec 
tions  in  your  city,  and  I  venture  to  express  the  hope  and 
belief  that  you  will  feel  called  upon  to  make  immediate 
retraction  of  the  contrary  statements  in  your  story. 

"At  best,  however,  a  month  would  have  elapsed  since 
the  original  publication.  Hence,  failing  to  receive 
within  a  reasonable  time  assurance  of  your  intention  to 
take  such  action,  unwelcome  as  the  task  would  be,  I 
could  not  evade  what  seems  to  me  the  obligation  to  try 

7.  This  is  also  warranted  by  the  following  passage  from  the 
same  paper  of  Wyman :  "It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Negro 
and  the  orang  [meaning  the  tailless  apes,  as  above]  do  afford 
the  points  where  man  and  the  brute,  when  the  totality  of  their 
organization  is  considered,  most  nearly  approach  each  other" ; 
1847,  p.  441.  In  this  connection,  however,  it  should  be  added 
that,  in  respect  to  the  location  of  the  foramen  magnum,  the  hole 
in  the  base  of  the  skull  where  the  brain  is  continuous  with  the 
spinal  cord,  Wyman  found  the  North  American  Indian  to  rank 
lower  than  the  Negro;  1868,  p.  447.  Likewise  should  not  be 
overlooked  the  fact  that  the  hair  of  apes  and  monkeys  is 
straight  and  thus  resembles  that  of  the  Negro  less  than  it  does 
the  curly  locks  of  many  Caucasians. 


to  arrest  the  further  diffusion  of  the  scientific  error 
and  the  political  venom  that  characterize  the  passages 
in  question."  At  a  meeting  of  the  American  Anthropo 
logical  Society,  Dec.  28,  1905,  I  laid  the  matter  before  that 
Society  in  a  paper. 

Under  date  of  Jan.  3,  1906,  was  given  this  assurance: 
"Mr.  Wister  will  investigate  the  matter  at  the  earliest 
opportunity,  and  if  he  find  that  what  he  said  is  not 
justified  by  sufficient  scientific  authority  he  will  take 
every  step  in  his  power  to  set  the  matter  right." 

In  the  February  number  of  Alexander's  Magazine,  as 
part  of  an  Appendix  to  the  Garrison  Centenary  address 
as  printed  in  the  preceding  number,  and  under  the  cap 
tion,  "A  Novelist's  Needless  Error,"  I  said:  "Even 
if  the  misstatement  is  qualified  or  retracted  in  the 
book- form  of  "Lady  Baltimore,"  the  atonement  will  be 
far  from  adequate.  I  print  this  note  (and  trust  it  may 
be  reprinted)  as  an  authoritative  correction  of  an  inju 
rious  scientific  error." 

Under  date  of  Feb.  24th,  in  the  acknowledgment  of 
the  receipt  of  a  reprint  of  the  Address  and  Appendix 
above  mentioned,  it  is  stated :  "Mr.  Wister  is  very 
glad  you  have  taken  the  step  of  personally  correcting 
his  overstatement.  It  seemed  to  him  that  the  personal 
and  public  retraction  which  you  demanded  was  out  of 
proportion  with  the  error.  The  passage  stands  cor 
rected  after  having  been  submitted  to  Mr.  Arthur  Erwin 
Brown.  It  is  a  middle  course  between  the  extreme  one 
originally  taken  in  Mr.  Wister's  sentences,  and  the  other 
extreme  one  taken  in  your  own." 

The  passage  in  question,  on  p.  171  of  "Lady  Balti 
more,"  is  now  as  -follows : 

"There  was  a  similarity  of  shape,  a  kinship  there  be 
tween  the  three,  which  stared v you  in  the  face;  but  in 
the  contours  of  the  vaulted  skull,  the  projecting  jaws, 
and  the  great  molar  teeth — what  was  to  be  seen?  Why, 

29 


in  every  respect  that  the  African  departed  from  the 
Caucasian,  he  departed  in  the  direction  of  the  ape." 

Neither  the  emendation,  nor  the  disclaimer  in  the 
preface  of  a  "feeling  against  the  colored  race,"  seem 
to  me  to  constitute  reparation  for  the  original  wrong. 
For  one  cultivated  and  discriminating  reader  of  the 
volume  there  are  probably  ten  who  have  been  directly 
or  indirectly  misled  by  the  statement  in  the  periodical. 
In  my  judgment,  especially  in  view  of  the  declaration 
quoted  above  from  the  letter  of  Jan.  3rd,  "he  will  take 
every  step  in  his  power  to  set  the  matter  right,"  the 
author  was  and  still  is  bound  to  publish  an  explicit 
retraction  in  the  same  periodical.  A  nearly  equal  re 
sponsibility  rests  upon  the  conductors  of  the  periodical. 

The  episode  narrated  above  has  an  indirect  as  well 
as  direct  significance.  So  far  as  known  to  me  no  other 
person  protested  against  the  original  allegation.  This 
might  be  taken  to  signify  merely  indifference.  But  it 
may  also  be  interpreted  as  indicating  a  general  lack 
of  accurate  knowledge  respecting  the  skulls  of  apes  and 
of  races  of  men.  Since  such  specimens  are  readily  ob 
tained  and  easily  prepared,  and  since  they  are  exhibited 
in  all  large  museums  and  represented  in  comprehensive 
works,  there  may  fairly  be  assumed  an  even  greater  and 
more  widely  spread  ignorance  concerning  the  contents 
of  these  bony  cases.  Such  brains  are  far  less  easily 
obtained  and  preserved ;  in  museums  they  are  less  com 
mon  and  less  accessible;  they  are  very  complex  (the 
human  brain  presents  at  least  five  hundred  features, 
parts,  and  combinations  of  parts  visible  to  the  naked 
eye  and  provided  with  one  or  more  names)  ;  and 
fewer  anatomists  devote  themselves  to  their  study  and 
comparison.8  Hence  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  offer 
a  few  elementary  statements,  general  and  particular. 

8.  It  is  encouraging  to  note  that  the  reorganized  Wistar  In 
stitute  of  Anatomy  in  Philadelphia  has  made  early  and  special 

30 


1.  Among  the  brains  of  vertebrates,  from  the  lamprey 
up   to    man,    under    multifarious    differences    of    detail, 
there  is  recognizable  such  unity  of  type  as  to  furnish  one 
of  the  strongest  arguments  for  the  belief  that  the  higher 
or    more    specialized    forms    have    been    evolved    from 
lower  or  more  generalized. 

2.  The  animals  most  nearly  resembling  man  in  struc 
ture  are  the  three  true  apes,  orang,  chimpanzee,  and  go 
rilla.    Among  the  points  in  common  are  the  total  absence 
of  a  tail  and  the  presence  of  the  cecal  appendix.9 

3.  When  human  and  ape  brains  are  compared,  whether 
from  the  several  external  surfaces  (Figs.  5,  6,  7)  or  after 
division  into  right  and  left  halves     as  shown  in  charts 
not  reproduced  here10  the  resemblances  are  so  numerous 
and    impressive    that   anyone    who    accepts    the   general 
doctrine  of  evolution  can  hardly  resist  the  conclusion 
that  men  and  apes  have  been  derived  from  some  common 
stock. 

4.  Nevertheless,  and  irrespective  of  absolute  size  (the 
smallest  human  brain    [680  grams  or  24  ounces]    out 
weighs  the  largest  ape  brain  [500  grams  or  17  ounces], 
see     Tables     I     and     III),     between     the     brains     of 
all  animals,  including  the  apes,  and  those  of  all  human 
races,  so   far  as  examined,   the  differences  are  several, 

provision  for  neurologic  research  by  experts.  Even  more 
imperative,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  acquirement  by  all  persons 
of  a  certain  amount  of  personal  familiarity  with  brains  repre 
senting  the  principal  vertebrate  groups.  Upon  several  occa 
sions  I  have  urged  that  this  practical  work  begin  in  the  pri 
mary  school,  and  during  the  last  five  years  I  have  specified,  as 
most  favorable  for  beginners,  the  brain  of  the  Acanth  shark 
(Squalus  acanthias)  commonly  known  as  the  "spiny  or  horned 
dog-fish";  sec  the  paper,  1907,  and  the  references  in  it. 

9.  In  these  respects  and  some  others  man  is  also  approached 
by  the  gibbons,  but  in  other  respects  these  are  evidently  less 
removed  from  the  tailed  monkeys  than  are  the  other  apes. 

10.  Some  of  these  charts  included  the  entire  brain ;  but  the 
figures  here  given  represent  only  the  cerebral  hemispheres,  the 
parts  related  most  directly  to  consciousness,  volition,  and  intel 
lectuality. 

31 


considerable,  and  practically  constant.  So  far  as  I  know 
there  has  never  been  examined  a  brain  respecting  which 
there  could  be  a  doubt  as  to  its  human  or  ape  nature.11 

5.  At   various   times   and   by   various   writers    certain 
differences  have  been  alleged  to  exist  between  African 
and   Caucasian  brains,   viz.,   color,  the  presence  of  the 
"ape-fissure"  (named  "pomatic''  by  me  in  1889,  and  "lu- 
natus"  by  G.  Elliott  Smith  later),  the  greater  frequency 
and  distinctness  of  the  postrhinal  fissure  (to  the  presence 
and  morphologic  significance  of  which  I  called  attention 
at  the  American  Neurological  Association  in  1885),  the 
absence   of  rthe   "sulcus   frontalis   mesialis,"   the   brevity 
of  the  Sylvian  fissure,  the  lateral  extension  of  the  occip 
ital    fissure,    the    general    simplicity    of    fissuration,    less 
development  of  the  frontal  portion  of  the  callosum  (the 
great  band  of  fibers  connecting  the  two  cerebral  hemis 
pheres,    Fig.    13),    ventral    concavity    or    lateral    flatten 
ing,  or  both,  of  the  prefrontal  lobe,  less  relative  size  of 
the   entire    frontal   lobe,   and   less   weight   of   the   entire 
brain. 

6.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain   from  the 
writings  of  others  and  from  my  own  observations,  none 
of  the  features  above  ^numerated  is  comparable  in  extent 
and  significance  with  the  differences  between  all  human 
and   all   ape   brains ;    none   is   constantly   present   in   the 
African,  and  each  occurs  sometimes  in  the  Caucasian. 

Before  considering  some  of  these  alleged  differences 
more  in  detail  I  state  my  conviction  that,  even  were 
they  more  numerous,  more  considerable,  and  more  con 
stant,  they  should  not  invalidate  conclusions  legitimately 
derived  from  conduct  indicative  of  lofty  ideals  and  of 
the  ability  and  disposition  to  act  in  accordance  with  them. 


IT.  This  remark  applies,  of  course,  only  to  forms  now  living. 
Speculation  as  to  the  conditions  in  Pithecanthropus  crcctus,  the 
fossil  primate  of  Java,  would  be  out  of  place  here. 


Color.; — Since  the  brain,  like  the  rest  of  the  central 
nervous  system,  is  primarily  derived  from  the  same 
embryonic  layer  as  the  skin,  and  since  part  of  the  mem 
brane  covering  the  sheep's  brain  is  black,  and  with  the 
"spoon-bill  sturgeon"  (Polyodon)  the  fatty  connective  tis 
sue  surrounding  the  brain  is  richly  pigmented,  one  might 
not  unnaturally  expect  to  find  the  African  brain  of  a 
darker  hue.  Such  was  claimed  to  be  the  case  in  a 
mulatto  by  Laboulbene  in  1849,  but  it  was  probably  an 
individual  peculiarity.  Museum  specimens  present  many 
shades  of  color  due  to  the  nature  of  the  preservatives 
employed.  For  example,  in  the  Cornell  University  col 
lection  the  darkest  brain  (3531)  was  from  a  physician 
and  poet,  while  that  of  a  Negro  (3808)  is  one  of  the 
lightest. 

Most  of  the  other  alleged  characteristics  of  the  Af 
rican  brain12  could  not  be  discussed  without  technical 
ities  out  of  place  on  this  occasion. 

Fissural  or  gyral  simplicity. — The  surface  of  the 
cerebrum  is  smooth  in  early  stages  of  development  and 
remains  approximately  so  with  the  lower  monkeys;  with 
the  higher  monkeys  and  with  the  apes  the  arrangement 
is  simpler  than  in  man.  Hence,  upon  the  supposition 
that  the  African  race,  as  a  whole,  has  made  less  progress 
than  the  Caucasian  from  ancestral  and  infantile  condi 
tions,  the  cerebral  fissures  of  Negroes  might  be  expected 
to  present  a  less  degree  of  complexity  and  a  more  ob 
vious  symmetry  between  the  right  and  left  sides. 

The  literature  of  this   subject  has  been  reviewed  by 


12.  It  will  be  interesting  to  ascertain  from  the  careful  examina 
tion  of  many  well  prepared  African  brains  whether  there  is 
any  resemblance  to  the  lower  mammals,  including  the  apes,  in 
a  greater  absolute  or  relative  size  of  the  olfactory  bulb,  or  of  the 
part  variously  called  thalamic  fusion,  middle  commissure,  and 
massa  intermedia;  my  own  observations  do  not  look  that  way, 
but  they  are  too  few  for  generalization. 

33 


Mall  who  has  also  compared  many  brains  of  the 
two  races ;  he  makes  the  two  following  statements : 
"Brains  rich  in  gyri.  and  snlci  (fissures)  of  the 
Gauss  type,13  are  by  no  means  rare  in  the  American 
Negro";  p.  24.  "With  the  present  crude  methods  the 
statement  that  the  Negro  brain  approaches  the  fetal  or 
simian  [ape]  type  more  than  does  the  white  is  entirely 
unwarranted";  p.  20. 

In  this  connection  my  own  experience,  while  not  per 
haps  unique,  may  be  related  as  exemplifying  the  undesir- 
ability  of  drawing  conclusions  from  a  small  number  of 
cases.  One  of  the  first  brains  obtained  entire  for  Cor 
nell  University  was  that  of  an  unknown  and  presumably 
obscure  mulatto  of  medium  color.  It  was  hardened 
within  the  skull  so  that  the  contours,  both  general  and 
special,  were  perfectly  preserved.  Although  the  fissure^ 
were  peculiar  in  some  respects  they  and  the  intervening 
gyres  wrere  far  simpler  than  any  known  to  me  and  were 
employed  as  the  basis  of. diagrams  that  have  served  my 
pupils  and  those  of  others  in  the  elucidation  of  the  more 
complex  usual  conditions. 

Later  acquisitions  showed  how  unwise  it  would  have 
been  to  regard  this  mulatto  brain  (Fig.  3)  as  a  type  of  the 
mixed  black  and  white,  or  to  assume  that  all  Caucasian 
brains  are  more  complex,  and  that  still  greater  simplicity 
prevails  with  the  full  blacks.  The  next  three  African 
brains  obtained  by  us  (3118,  3808,  and  2912)  presented 
various  degrees  of  the  usual  fissural  complexity,  and  the 
last  of  these,  from  an  illiterate  janitor,  apparently  full 
black,  is  comparable  with  that  of  a  mathematician  and 
hilosopher  (3334,  Fig.  8).14 

13.  Gauss  was  a  German  mathematician  and  his  cerebral  fissures 
were  unusually  complex. 

14.  So  altruistic  was  this  man,  and  so  keen  his  sense  of  justice, 
that  he  would   surely   rejoice   to   know   that   his   brain   had   con 
tributed    in    any    way    to    the    increase    of    knowledge    and    the 
righting  of  wrong. 

34 


On  the  other  hand,  the  cerebrum  of  Chauncey  Wright, 
another  philosopher  and  mathematician  (Fig.  4),  dis 
tinctly  recalls  that  of  the  mulatto  in  what  may  be  termed 
its  "Egyptian"  style  of  architecture  as  contrasted  with 
the  more  common  "Corinthian"  style.  Finally,  and  to 
complete  this  series  of  warning  paradoxes,  in  the  Cornell 
collection  the  nearest  approach  to  the  Wright-mulatto 
type  is  made  by  the  brain  of  Ruloff  (965)  who,  although 
a  murderer,  was  fairly  educated  and  interested  in 
linguistic  problems;  his  skull  is  the  thickest  that  I  ever 
saw,  while  the  thinnest  is  that  of  the  mulatto;  Figs, 
i  and  2. 

Alleged  pre frontal  deficiency  in  the  Negro  brain. — 
The  anterior  portion  of  the  cerebrum,  sometimes  dis 
tinguished  as  the  prefrontal  lobe,  includes  a  part,  at 
least  of  the  "anterior  association  areas"  which  are  sup 
posed  to  subserve  the  higher  psychic  faculties,  especially 
reason,  judgment,  and  self-control  or  voluntary  inhibi 
tion.  In  apes  and  monkeys  this  region  is  both  absolutely 
and  relatively  smaller  than  in  man  (Fig.  10,  orang  and 
baboon),  and  although  the  other  contours  are  more  or 
less  rounded  there  is  a  distinct  ventral  concavity.  Upon 
information  of  Hrdlicka  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Mall, 
I  Jean  undertook  to  determine  whether  the  brains  of 
American  Negroes  are  deficient  in  this  important  region, 
and  examined  many  specimens  to  that  end.  His  obser 
vations  and  conclusions  were  published  in  the  same  year, 
1906,  in  the  American  Journal  of  Anatomy  and  in  the 
Century  Magazine  for  September;  these  periodicals  will 
be  distinguished  as  A.  J.  A.  and  Century;  the  article  in 
former  is  fuller  but  that  in  the  latter  is  less  technical 
and  more  likely  to  be  accessible  to  the  laity. 

On  p.  412  of  the  A.  J.  A.,  Bean  claims,  mainly  if  not 
wholly  from  the  form  and  size  of  the  frontal  lobe,  that 
"the  Negro  brain  can  be  distinguished  from  the  Cau 


casian  with  a  varying  degree  of  accuracy  according  to 
the  mixture  of  white  blood." 

In  a  later  number  of  the  same  journal  Mall  reviews 
(1909)  the  several  statements  of  Bean  in  the  light  of  an 
extensive  series  of  his  own  observations.  He  says 
(p.  18)  that  the  flattening  over  the  anterior  association 
area  may  be  seen  in  most  full-blood  Negroes,  certainly 
in  more  than  one-half.  A  mixed  lot  of  sixty  Negro 
brains  and  thirty  white  were  assorted  correctly  in  seven- 
ty-five  per  cent,  of  the  cases.  A  more  satisfactory  test 
would  be  the  assortment  of  larger  and  equal  numbers 
of  the  two  races.  No  one  would  be  justified  in  the  in 
ference  that  the  determination  could  be  made  with  any 
such  certainty  as  that  between  the  brains  of  all  apes  and 
those  of  all  human  races. 

In  the  Century  article,  however,  p.  782,  Bean  makes 
this  sweeping  declaration : 

"The  size  and  shape  of  the  front  end  of  the  brain  is 
different  in  the  two  races,  being  smaller  and  more  angu 
lar  in  the  Negro,  while  it  is  larger  and  more  rounded  in  the 
Caucasian.  Fig.  i  shows  vertical  sections  taken  through 
the  frontal  lobes  between  1.5  and  2  centimeters  from 
the  front  end  of  the  brain  of  a  Negro,  and  between  2 
and  2.5  centimeters  from  the  front  end  of  the  brain  of  a 
Caucasian.15  The  section  of  the  Caucasian  brain  is  larger 
and  more  circular  than  that  of  the  Negro,  not  exhibiting 

15.  Since  the  frontal  lobe  commonly  tapers  forward  a  section 
nearer  the  front  end  will  usually  be  smaller  than  one  further 
back;  hence  it  was  only  just  in  Bean  to  state  (as  in  the  above 
extract)  that  the  Negro  brain  was  cut  nearer  the  front  end. 
Unfortunately,  however,  this  qualification  is  not  repeated  in 
connection  with  the  figure  itself,  which  is  on  the  following 
page.  Now  figures  are  so  much  more  impressive  than  descrip 
tions  that  probably  most  readers  would  infer  that  the  two 
sections  were  made  at  the  same  level  and  would  interpret  the 
difference  in  size  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Negro.  This  un 
warranted  interpretation  seems  to  have  been  made  in  an  edi 
torial  in  American  Medicine  (April,  190?  p.  197)  which  stig 
matizes  the  enfranchised  Negroes  as  "an  electorate  without 
brains." 

36 


the  narrow  projecting  sides  and  pointed  tips  above  and 
below." 

From  the  foregoing  and  from  the  accompanying  fig 
ures  it  might  naturally  be  inferred  that  the  two  forms  of 
the  prefrontal  lobe  are  constant  and  characteristic  of  the 
two  races.  That  this  is  not  the  case  may  be  seen  from 
my  Figs.  10  and  n.  These  are  photographic  reproduc 
tions  of  transections  of  eight  primate16  cerebral  hemis 
pheres  in  the  prefrontal  region.  In  order  that  the 
sections  might  be  at  the  same  structural  level  in  all, 
there  was  adopted  the  "base-line"  employed  by  Bean 
(A.  J.  A.,  p.  404,  said  by  him,  p.  354,  to  have  been 
suggested  by  Mall),  passing  just  below  the  hinder  end 
of  the  callosum  and  just  above  the  precommissure 
("anterior  commissure")  and  usually  coinciding  nearly 
with  the  greatest  length  of  the  hemisphere.  By  means  of 
a  frame  the  several  sections  were  made  at  right  angles 
with  this  line  at  a  level  half-way  between  the  end  of  the 
hemisphere  and  the  precommissure. 

The  sections  of  the  orang  and  the  baboon  (both  un 
usually  intelligent,  individuals)  display  decided  inferior 
ity  as  to  both  form  and  extent.  Between  the  two  jurists 
there  is  little  difference,  but  what  there  is  seems  to 
favor  him  of  the  higher  character  and  greater  self- 
control  (2870).  With  the  white  philosopher  (3334)  and 
the  illiterate  black  janitor  (2912)  the  ventral  excavation 
is  nearly  equal,  but  the  latter  presents  a  dorso-laterai 
flattening  that  is  wholly  absent  from  the  former. 

The  white  murderer  (3335)  equals  the  other  three 
whites  in  form  and  surpasses  them  in  area.  There  is  a 
slight  ventral  concavity  which  does  not  appear  at  all  in 
the  mulatto  thief  (3118);  in  the  latter,  moreover,  the 
slight  dorsal  concavity  is  deceptive,  and  due  to  the  break- 


16.  This   word   relates   to   any   member   of   the   order    Primates, 
including  man,  apes,  monkeys,  baboons,  marmosets,  and  lemurs. 

37 


ing  off  of  a  slightly  attached  piece;  the  natural  outline 
at  that  point  is  rounded. 

Surely  no  detailed  arguments  are  required  to  expose 
the  fallacies  lurking  in  any  comparisons  of  small  num 
bers  of  specimens.  Bean's  collocation  of  the  transec- 
tions  of  the  prefrontal  lobes  of  a  Negro  and  a  Caucasian 
(even  if  made  at  the  same  level)  as  if  they  represented  a 
constant  racial  difference,  is  no  more  conclusive  as  to 
the  two  races  than  would  be  my  collocation  of  the  white, 
3652,  with  the  Negro,  3118,  as  proving  the  cerebral 
superiority  of  the  African  race,  or  the  collocation  of  the 
righteous  judge  (2870)  with  the  executed  murderer 
(3335)  as  a  guide  to  our  relative  esteem  for  the  crim 
inal  classes  and  those  who  pass  upon  their  misdeeds. 

Alleged  less  size  of  the  entire  frontal  lobe  in  the 
Negro. — According  to  Bean  (A.  J.  A.,  p.  377)  the  whole 
region  in  front  of  the  central  fissure  ("fissure  of 
Rolando")  is  smaller  in  the  Negro  than  in  the  white. 
Mall  reviews  the  evidence  and  concludes  (p.  13)  that 
"it  is  incorrect  to  say  that  the  frontal  lobe  of  the  Negro 
is  lighter  than  that  of  the  white." 

In  the  concluding  paragraph  of  his  article  Mall  em 
phasizes  the  need  of  more  material  and  better  methods 
as  follows: 

"In  this  study  of  several  anatomical  characters,  said 
to  vary  according  to  race  and  sex  and  intellectuality,17 
the  evidence  advanced  has  been  tested  and  found  want 
ing.  It  is  found,  however,  that  portions  of  the  brain 
vary  greatly  in  different  brains  and  that  a  very  large 
number  of  records  must  be  obtained  before  the  norm 
will  be  found.  For  the  present  the  crudeness  of  our 
methods  will  not  permit  us  to  determine  anatomical 
characters  due  to  race,  sex,  or  genius,  which  if  they 
exist  are  completely  masked  by  the  large  number  of 

17,  In  a  private  letter  Dr.  Mall  authorizes  me  to  interpolate  this 
word,  not  included  in  the  original. 

38 


marked  individual  variations.  The  study  has  been  still 
further  complicated  by  the  personal  equation  of  the  in 
vestigator.  Arguments  for  difference  due  to  race,  sex,  or 
genius  will  henceforward  need  to  be  based  upon  new 
data,  really  scientifically  treated,  and  not  on  the  older 
statements." 

Brain-weight. — Just  how  much  significance  should  be 
ascribed  to  the  weight  of  the  brain  is  by  no  means  certain ; 
it  is,  however,  a  subject  of  natural  and  general  interest 
upon  which  statements  are  not  always  correct  and  inter 
pretations  not  always  sound.  The  following  nine  tables 
have  been  compiled  from  the  latest  reliable  sources  ac 
cessible  to  me.  An  effort  has  been  made  to  construct 
them  so  as  to  tell  their  own  story.  The  notes  and  com 
ments  are  numbered  to  correspond  with  the  lines  in  each 
Table,  whether  or  not  the  lines  are  numbered.18 

Upon  the  present  occasion  it  has  been  found  impracti 
cable  to  take  into  account  several  very  important  quali 
fying  factors,  viz.,  the  absolute  and  relative  size  of  the 
cerebrum  alone,  the  thickness  and  histologic  structure  of 
the  cortex,  and  the  correlations  with  stature,  body- 
weight,  age,  and  disease ;  these  last  four  topics  have  been 
ably  discussed  by  Donaldson,  1895,  1908,  and  1909. 

General  conclusion. — So  far  as  I  can  determine  from 
the  publications  of  others  and  from  my  own  observations, 
the  utmost  that  can  be  said  at  present  is: — (i  )  The  aver 
age  brain-weight  of  obscure  American  Negroes  is  a  little 
(about  2  ounces,  or  50-60  grams)  less  than  that  of 
obscure  American  whites,  and  (2)  With  Negroes  more 
frequently  than  with  whites  does  there  occur  prefrontal 
deficiency.  I  Jut  (i)  Many  Negro  brains  weigh  more 
than  the  white  average,  and  many  white  brains  weigh 


1 8.  The  ounce  is  the  avoirdupois,  sixteen  to  the  pound,  equiva 
lent  to  28.349  grams;  in  reducing  from  one  system  to  the  other 
the  ounce  is  reckoned  as  28.35  Drains.  Conversely,  100  grams 
equals  3.52  ounces,  roughly  three  and  one-half. 

39 


less  than  the  Negro  average;  (2)  Some  white  brains 
present  lateral  or  ventral  depression  of  the  prefrontal 
lobe,  and  some  Negro  brains  do  not.  As  yet  there  has 
been  found  no  constant  feature  by  which  the  Negro  brain 
may  be  certainly  distinguished  from  that  of  a  Caucasian ; 
whereas  either  of  them  is  at  once  distinguishable  from 
the  brain  of  an  ape,  and  would  be  by  a  dozen  or  more 
points  of  structure,  even  if  they  were  of  the  same  size. 
For  the  determination  of  possible'  racial  peculiarities 
larger  numbers  of  brains  of  both  races  should  be  exam 
ined  with  impartiality  and  by  more  exact  methods.  Par 
ticularly  useful  would  be  the  brains  of  persons  of  Af 
rican  descent  who  have  achieved  eminence  in  any  respect.19 
Yet,  even  if  it  should  appear  that  certain  features  or 
conditions  occur  more  frequently  in  the  Negro,  so  long 
as  these  conditions  are  not  constant  in  the  Negro  and  so 
long  as  they  sometimes  occur  with  whites,  and  even  with 
those  who  are  morally  and  intellectually  superior,  the 
greater  average  frequency  in  the  Negro  should  not  be 
interpreted  to  the  disadvantage  of  worthy  individuals  of 
that  race. 

TABLE     I. — APPROXIMATE     BRAIN-WEIGHTS     OF     SOME     ANIMALS 
LARGER  THAN  MAN 

Pounds  Ounces  Grams 

Gorilla,  the  largest   ape    . .  17          500 

Bison,  four  years    old  . .  18          529 

Some    whales    5  80        2265 

Rhytina,   extinct  "sea-cow"    5  79        2242 

Elephants    10  160        4500 

i.  Of  five  adult  male  gorillas  Turner  found  (1897,  P-  451)  the 
largest  to  have  a  cranial  capacity  of  590  cubic  centimeters.  Em 
ploying  as  the  coefficient  .87  (stated  by  Spitzka  [1907,  p.  218]  to 

19.  Should  the  Afro-American  leaders  of  to-day  bequeath  their 
brains  to  some  institution  that  would  preserve  them  properly 
and  study  them  fairly  and  thoroughly  the  next  generation  might 
find  the  statistics  of  brain-weight  telling  a  very  different  story. 
Copies  of  a  "Form  of  Bequest  of  Brain"  may  be  obtained  from 
the  writer. 

40 


be  that  of  Manouvrier),  gives  as  the  weight  of  its  brain  513 
grams ;  but  as  the  average  cranial  capacity  of  the  five  was  494 
c.c.,  the  round  number,  500,  is  here  provisionally  adopted.  The 
adult  male  gorilla  is  estimated  by  Owen  (1868,  p.  144)  to  weigh 
nearly  200  pounds,  considerably  more  than  the  average  man. 

2.  The   bison,   although   young,    had   probably   gained   the    full 
size   of   both   body   and   brain ;    the    latter    is    said    by    Hrdlicka 
( 19°5,  P-  98)    to  have  weighed  529  grams,  something  more  than 
a  pound. 

3.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  the  brains  of  large  cetaceans 
have  seldom  been  weighed  fresh.      According  to  Bischoff   (1880, 
p.  23),  that  of  an  individual  75   feet  long  weighed   1942  grams 
after  hardening  in   alcohol,   and  he   estimates   the   fresh   weight 
as  2816;  even  if  this  be  excessive  the  general  weight  assigned  in 
our  Table  is  certainly  moderate. 

4.  The    Rhytina    inhabited    the    shores    of    Bering's    Strait;    it 
resembled  the  manatee,  or  "sea-cow,"  but  was  much  larger;  no 
brain   was   actually   weighed,    but    Bischoff   states    (p.    24)     that 
from  a  cast  of  the  cranial  cavity  the  weight  was  estimated  by 
Brandt  at  2242  grams;  see  also  Smith*,  p.  347. 

5.  Like  the  manatee's,  the  brain  of  the  rhytina  was  probably 
simple,    with    large    ventricles.       But    the    elephant's    brain    is 
very    substantial    and    richly    convoluted.       The    average    weight 
of   five  brains  enumerated   by   Bischoff    (p.   23)    is   4485   grams, 
in   round  numbers  4500,  or  nearly  ten  pounds. 

Although  three  of  the  above-named  animals  surpass  man  in 
the  absolute  weight  of  the  brain,  their  bodies  are  so  gigantic 
that  the  relative  weight  falls  far  below  the  human,  about  one 
to  forty-five ;  in  this  respect,  also,  man  surpasses  the  bison,  the 
gorilla,  and  indeed  most  animals  larger  than  a  cat.  But.  as 
may  be  seen  from  the  Table  in  Hrdlicka's  paper  (1905)  the 
brain  is  relatively  larger  than  in  man  with  some  small  monkeys 
(marmosets),  with  some  birds,  with  several  rodents,  and  with 
a  shrew-mole.  In  all  these,  however,  the  cerebrum  is  nearly 
or  quite  devoid  of  convolutions. 

It  appears  from  the  above  statistics  that  any  statement  as  to 
the  comparative  brain- weight  of  animals  and  man  must  be  ac 
companied  by  several  qualifications. 


TABLE  II. — AVERAGE  BRAIN-WEIGHTS  F<;R  CERTAIN  RACES,  COLIN 
TKIES  AND  STATUS 


Number  Race 

Country 

Ounces     Grains 

i 

27 

Cauc. 

U.    S.    &    Can. 

Notable 

53 

53-25 

1510 

2 

14 

" 

Gt.    Britain 

" 

52 

52.24 

1481 

3 

24 

" 

U.  S. 

Soldiers 

52 

52.06 

1475 

4 

108 

" 

Various 

Notable 

52 

51-95 

H73 

5 

70 

" 

** 

52 

5L92 

1472 

6 

3 

Eskimo  N.  A. 

Various 

51 

51-39 

M57 

7 

20 

Cauc. 

France 

Notable 

51-35 

M57 

8 

3« 

" 

Ger.   &   Aus. 

" 

51 

50.75 

M39 

9 

2,000 

(t 

Europe 

Various 

49 

49,38 

1400 

10 

51 

" 

U.  S. 

Obscure 

47 

47.26 

M4i 

it       381     African    ' 

Soldiers 

47 

46.73 

1325 

12 

51 

* 

*( 

Obscure 

46 

45-57 

1292 

13 

70 

" 

i( 

" 

45 

45-39 

1287 

'4 

10 

(<. 

Africa 

" 

43 

42.64 

1209 

i,  2,  4,  5,  7.  and  8  are  derived  from  the  "List  of  the  brain- 
weights  of  1 08  notable  men"  constituting  Table  I  of  the  paper 
(1907)  by  E.  A.  Spitzka.21'  In  that  Table  the  individuals  are 
named  in  the  order  of  their  brain-weight,  beginning  with  the 
highest.  In  using  it  I  have  found  it  convenient  to  number  the 
individuals,  serially,  1-108;  then,  in  a  separate  column,  to  pre 
fix  the  numbers  under  which  the  cases  are  discussed  at  greater 
or  less  length  upon  pages  107-209.  From  these  fuller  accounts, 
and  with  the  cooperation  of  the  author  were  corrected  the  fol 
lowing  errors :  the  brain-weight  of  E.  C.  Seguin  (40)  should 
be  1502,  not  1505;  that  of  Oliver  (65),  1416,  not  1418;  that  of 
Agassiz  (43),  1514,  not  1495,  and  that  of  Zeyer  (95),  1310,  not 
1320.  It  was  not  noticed  at  first  that  No.  31  is  Taguchi,  a 
Japanese  anatomist;  his  brain,  however,  weighed  1520  grams, 
coming  thus  within  the  middle  fifty  of  the  series  and  not  af 
fecting  materially  the  average  or  the  comparison  with  other 
series. 

I.  These  include  twenty-five  residents  of  the  United  States 
and  two  Canadians;  from  the  standpoint  of  climatic  environ 
ment  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  for  separating  them.  The 
superior  brain-weight,  as  compared  with  the  fourteen 
Hritish  notables,  may  have  accompanied  greater  stature 
and  body-weight,  as  remarked  by  Hunt  (1869,  p.  53),  in  the 
case  of  soldiers  of  this  country  and  of  Europe;  but  such  data 


20.  The  worthy  son  of  an  eminent  father,  E.  C.  Spitzka ;  were 
the  latter  not  fully  occupied  in  other  directions  his  knowledge 
and  his  nature  (as  exemplified  in  his  almost  single-handed  de 
fiance  of  the  c'o.r  turbac  respecting  the  mental  status  of  the 
assassin,  Guiteau)  would  naturally  enlist  him  in  behalf  of  the 
still  oppressed  Afro-American, 

42 


are  not  available  with  these  notables.  The  average  brain- 
weight  of  these  twenty-seven  American  notables  is  nearly  iden 
tical  with  that  (1513)  of  the  nine  eminent  Caucasians  in  Spitzka's 
Table  A,  p.  304. 

3.  This  item  is  from  Hunt.  The  superior  brain-weight  may 
be  compared  with  that  of  the  obscure  whites  in  line  10. 

5.  These  seventy  were  chosen  by  lot  for  comparison  with  an 
equal  number  of  obscure  Negroes  in  line  13   (from  Table  VI.). 
The  108  serial  numbers  were  written  upon  small  cards  together 
with  the  corresponding  brain-weights.     The  cards  were  shaken 
thoroughly  in  a  box.    The  drawer,  blindfolded,  drew  out  seventy, 
and  their  average  weight  was  ascertained;  the  cards  were  shaken 
a  second  time  and  the  drawing  repeated.    The  first  average  was 
1481,  the  second,   1462.      The  average  of  the  two  is   1471.5,  tab 
ulated  as  1472,  or  51.9  ounces,  nearly  identical  with  that  of  the 
entire   108. 

6.  These   three    Eskimo    weights,    as     found,     respectively,     by 
Chudzinski,   Hrdlicka,   and   Spitzka,   to  be   1398,    1503,   and    1470. 
are  recorded  by  the  last  named    (1902,  p.  31).     The  average  is 
interestingly  high,  and  may  be  correlated  with  the  necessity  for 
strenuous  effort   for  self-preservation  in  high  latitudes,  but  the 
number    is   too    small    for    generalization. 

9.  According  to  Bean  (Century,  p.  782,  the  averages  for  males 
and  females  were  obtained  from  several  sources  respecting  4000 
European  Caucasians;  I  have  assumed  that  the  sexes  were  equally 
represented. 

10  and  12.  These  items  are  from  Bean's  Century  article,  p.  782, 
and  are  presumably  based  upon  his  Table  I  in  the  A.  J.  A. 
So  far  as  I  can  judge,  in  most  cases  the  brains  were  not  weighed 
until  after  they  had  been  subjected  to  a  preservative,  either 
before  or  after  removal ;  see  under  Table  V.  Without  attempt 
ing  to  account  for  the  sudden  drop  from  the  European  average 
(excepting  upon  the  supposition  that  the  latter  included  eminent 
as  well  as  obscure  individuals),  Bean's  average  for  the  obscure 
Africans  coincides  nearly  with  that  derived  from  the  seventy  in 
the  next  line,  and  as  an  average  may  be  accepted  even  if  doubt 
exists  respecting  individuals. 

II.  These  381  Afro-American  soldiers  are  from  Hunt,  1869, 
p.  51;  see  Table  VII.  The  higher  average,  as  compared  with 
the  obscure  negroes,  recalls  that  of  the  white  soldiers  in  line  3. 
As  indicating  the  selection  of  individuals  more  or  less  superior 
as  to  mental  and  physical  endowment  it  illustrates  the  force  of 
an  argument  in  favor  of  peace,  viz.,  the  undesirability  of  ex 
posing  such  potentially  efficient  citizens  to  wounds  and  death. 

13.  These  are  from  Lamb,  as  stated  under  Table  V. 

14.  From  Waldeyer,   1894,  p.   1220;  see  Table  4.    The  contrast 
between  the  two  averages  recalls   the   possibility  of  climatic   in 
fluence  as  with  the  27  North  American  notables;  it  is  regarded 
by   Waldeyer    (1894,   p.    1221)     as   indicating   an   interesting   and 
difficult   problem   probably    involving    several    factors;    he    speci- 

43 


fies  only  one,  viz.,  the  mixture  of  white  blood;  but  from  the 
right  column  of  Table  5  it  will  be  seen  that  the  average  brain- 
weight  of  the  29  full-blacks  is  1283  grams,  74  above  that  of  the 
native  Africans  and  only  4  below  that  of  the  70  of  all  grades. 

TABLE  III. — BRAIN-WEIGHTS  OF  SELECTED  INDIVIDUALS  OF  VARIOUS 
RACES,  COUNTRIES.,  AND  STATUS 

Name;   race;   country;  status  Ounces  Grams 

1  Turgenev ;   Russian   writer;    eminent 71  70.90  2012 

2  Negro;   nearly   white;    U.    S. ;   obscure....  56  55.97  1587 

3  Negro,   black ;   U.   S. ;   obscure    55  55.02  1560 

4  Kishu ;    Eskimo;    chief   of   tribe    53  53.01  1503 

5  Native    East    African    51  51.14  1450 

6  Hottentot ;  unusually  tall 50  50.00  1417 

7  J.   E.   O. ;  mathematic  teacher ;  philosopher  50  49.94  1416 

8  G.    F. ;    black   janitor;    illiterate    44  44.09  1250 

9  Gall ;    German    phrenologist    42  42.25  1198 

10  X.  Y.  Z. ;   jurist,  politician;   drunkard    ...  39  38.90  1103 

1 1  Native    East    African    36  36.40  1030 

12  D.   L. ;  white  watchman    24  24.00  680 

13  F.  W.  B. ;   congenital  idiot   13  12.52  355 

1.  From  Spitzka,  head  of  his  Table   T. 

2.  and  3.     From   Lamb ;   see   TaHe   V. 

4.  From  Hrdlicka  and  Spitzka;   see  Table   II,  6. 

5.  From  Waldeyer;  see  Table  IV,  first  entry. 

6.  From  Wyman   (1862)  ;  the  man  was  5  ft.  5^/2  in.  high,  un 
usual   for  that  race ;  I  saw  him  alive  and  took  part  in  the  dis 
section. 

7.  Prof.  James   Edward   Oliver  of   Cornell   University,   a  pro 
found  thinker,  an  enthusiastic  teacher,  and  of  the  loftiest  char 
acter.      His  brain  was  represented  and  described  by  me  in   1889 
and  1900. 

8.  George   Field;    apparently    full   black;    illiterate;    janitor   of 
the  Zeta  Psi  Chapter  House  at  Cornell  University ;  said  to  have 
been  faithful  and  worthy. 

9.  From  Spitzka's  Table  I,  near  foot  of  list. 

10.  X.  Y.  Z.,  said  to  have  been  an  able  lawyer  and  successful 
politician  in  a  large  city;  see  p.   =,/  and  fig.  5. 

11.  See  last  item  of  Table  IV. 

12.  So  far  as  known  to  me  this  is  the  smallest  brain  of  a  ra 
tional   man ;    it   has   been   kindly   loaned   to    me   by    Prof.    J.    H. 
Larkin    of    Columbia    University,    and    will    be    described    at    the 
coming  General  Meeting  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 
Compare    the    exceptionally    small    native    African    brain    men 
tioned  in  the  note  under  Table  IV. 

13.  From  Macnamara  and  Burne,    1903.      The  brain  is  said  to 
have  presented  ape-like  features,  but  it  was  unmistakably  human. 
See  also  Smith,  p.  463. 

44 


TABLE    IV. — BRAIN-WEIGHTS    OF    TEN    NEGROES    FROM    GERMAN 
EAST  AFRICA    (WALDEYER) 

Original  Original 

Number  Ounces  Grams  Number  Ounces  Grams 

12  50.15  1450              6  43.20  1225 

10  45.30  1285              8  40.50  1150 
4  45.00  1275              3  3970  1125 
2  44.10  1250              i  37.10  1050 

11  44.10  1250              7  36.40  1030 

Average  of  the  ten,  42.64  oz.,  equals   1209  grams. 

These  cases  are  from  Waldeyer,  1894.  In  the  originai  there 
are  twelve  brains.  The  weighing  was  done  in  Africa  by  Dr. 
Steudel  and  recorded  in  grams,  here  reduced  to  ounces.  Neither 
Waldeyer,  in  publishing  the  weights,  nor  Duckworth  in  quoting 
the  average  (1904,  p.  436),  seems  to  have  been  impressed  with 
the  preponderance  of  round  numbers.  Accepting  them  as  given 
they  have  been  reduced  to  ounces,  and  ten  have  been  rearranged 
so  as  to  bring  the  higher  weights  above,  but  retaining  the  num 
bers  of  the  original  list.  Two  have  been  omitted.  No.  5  was 
not  weighed  till  after  hardening ;  the  fresh  weight  was  then 
computed  at  907,  markedly  below  the  fresh  weights  known  for 
the  ten  here  included.  No.  9  was  from  a  youth  of  18,  dying 
of  sepsis  and  greatly  emaciated ;  the  fresh  weight  is  given  as 
780  grams,  reduced  to  630  by  hardening.  The  fresh  weight  is 
so  low  as  to  suggest  subnormal  intelligence,  perhaps  imbecility, 
that  invalidates  comparison  with  what  seem  to  be  representative 
individuals ;  were  these  more  numerous  its  inclusion  with  them 
might  be  warranted,  as  would  be  the  inclusion  of  the  excep 
tionally  small  brain  of  "D.  L."  (Table  III,  item  12),  among 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  whites.  The  omission  of  the  two 
doubtful  cases  above  mentioned  raises  the  average  weight  of 
these  ten  native  Africans  from  1148  to  1209,  sixty-one  grams 
or  a  little  more  than  two  ounces ;  but  this  still  leaves  consider 
able  and  probably  significant  margins  between  it  and  1287  for  the 
obscure  Afro-Americans,  and  1325  for  the  United  States  soldiers 
of  African  descent ;  the  inclusion  of  the  two  doubtful  cases 
would  increase  the  size  of  the  margins. 


45 


TABLE     V. — BRAIN-WEIGHTS     OF     SEVENTY     OBSCURE     AMERICAN 
X ECHOES  IN  Six  GROUTS  ACCORDING  TO  COLOR  (LAMB) 


Various  Sliades 
Serial  No.     Grains 
50  1446 

62  1432 

1261 


33 

Av.  of  3 


1 380 


Mulatto 


83 

1446 

68 

1403 

59 

1403 

42 

1361 

44 

1318 

4i 

1304 

98 

1304 

32 

1261 

7i 

1247 

24 

1247 

i8 

1148 

94 

IT20 

Av.  of  12 

1297 

Light  Mulatto 
96  1247 

36  1191 

7  no? 

Av.  of  3     1181 

Nearly   White 

21         1587 


Dark 

Mulatto 

Serial  No. 

Grams 

Si 

1417 

52 

14.17 

88 

1375 

82 

1375 

69 

1361 

73 

1361 

27 

1318 

22 

1304 

87 

1304 

45 

1304 

57 

1290 

23 

1290 

79 

1276 

85 

1247 

49 

1247 

64 

1219 

77 

1205 

51 
14 

20 
Av.  Of  22 


II9I 

Il62 
Il62 

1134 
1 1 2O 

1276 


Black 

Serial  No.   Grains 
1660 
89 
58 


37 

'55 
2521 
56 
9i 
30 

2522 
43 
63 
28 
66 
61 
40 


2912 

84 

75 
92 

93 

35 

80 
29 
67 
95 
17 
1661 


1560 
1530 
1502 

1502 


1417 
T395 
1375 
1361 
1361 
1350 
1332 
1332 
1304 
1276 
1276 
1261 
1261 


1219 
1219 
1191 
1191 
1191 

1162 

1148 
1077 
1063 
1063 
1040 


Av.  of  29     1283 
» 

In  view  of  the  n'.rity  of  available  records  of  the  brain- 
weights  of  individual  American  Negroes  I  have  added  to  the 
65  males  in  Lamb's  series  the  only  other  five  known  to  me,  viz., 
2912,  the  illiterate  black  janitor  mentioned  under  Table  III, 
and  numbers  1660,  1661,  2521,  and  2522  of  Bean's  series;  as  I 
understand  his  Table  I  and  the  statements  oh  pp.  358-9,  these  four 
are  the  only  ones  that  were  weighed  fresh  and  before  the  in 
jection  of  a  preservative  that  might  affect  the  weight. 

45 


TABLE     VI. — AVERAGE     BRAIN-WEIGHTS     OF     SEVENTY     OBSCURE 

\KGKOF.S    IN    SlX    GROUPS    ACCORDING    TO    COLOR    (LAMB) 

Averages 


Num 

ber 

Racial  Admixture 

I 

i 

Nearly   white    

2 

3 

Light    mulatto    

3 

12 

Mulatto     

4 

3 

Various    shades 

22 

Dark    mulatto     

6 

-J9 

Black     

Ounces 

Grams 

Totals 

56.00 

1587 

1587 

41.65 

1181 

3543 

45-75 

1297 

15562 

48.68 

1380 

4M9 

45-00 

1276 

28079 

45-25 

1283 

37209 

70        Totals     45-39  1287          901 19 

4.  The  few  individuals  included  under  this  vague  title  have 
been  given  an  intermediate  place. 

6.  The  greater  brain-weight  of  the  full-blacks  than  of  those 
with  slight  admixture  of  white  blood  is  interesting  and  has  been 
commented  upon  by  others;  see  Table  VII;  its  cause  and  signifi 
cance  are  yet  to  be  determined. 

TABLE   VTI. — AVERAGE    BRATN-WETGHTS    OF   381    UNION    SOLDIERS 

OF  AFRICAN   DESCENT    (HUNT) 
Racial  Admixture  Ounces 


Number 
25 
47 
51 
95 

22 

141 


Grams    Totals 


4  White   [quadroon] 
[mulatto] 
j  sambo]     .  . 


49-05 
47.07 

46.54 
46.16 
45-18 
46.96 


1390 
J334 
1319 
1308 
1280 
1 33 1 


34750 
6269^ 
67269 

124260 
28160 

187671 


46.73         1325       504808 

This  is  based  upon  the  "Ethnographical  Table"  of  Hunt,  1869, 
pp.  40-54.  The  records  were  made  under  the  direction  of  Sur 
geon  Tra  Russell,  nth  Massachusetts  Volunteers,  during  the 
Civil  War.  The  original  weights  are  given  in  ounces;  thc^  re 
ductions  to  grams  here  offered  coincide  with  those  of  Work 
(1906),  p.  27,  note).  In  the  Century  (1906,  p.  782)  Bean  under 
takes  to  reproduce  Hunt's  Table,  but  the  average  weights  are 
stated  in  grams  only;  for  the.  three-fourths  white  his  number, 
1390,  is  the  same  as  ours;  for  the  whites  (see  Table  X)  his 
number  is  three  grams  higher,  while  for  all  the  other  grades  of 
the  colored  the  numbers  are  three,  four  or  five  lower;  prob 
ably  the  reductions  were  made  in  haste  and  not  verified.  The 
Century  article  of  Bean  (1906)  contains  (p.  782)  an  independent 
column  of  weights  for  several  grades  of  color  to  which  he 
refers  in  the  A.  J.  A.,  p.  410,  as  warranting  practically  the  same 
conclusions  as  those  of  Hunt.  See,  however,  under  Tables  II 
and  V. 

As  to  the  degrees  of  racial  admixture,  in  the  absence  of 
statement  to  the  contrary  it  is  assumed  that  the  fractions  in 
the  second  column  represent  declarations  as  to  parentage  made 

47 


by  the  soldiers  and  recorded  at  or  subsequent  to  enlistment. 
In  estimating  the  extent  of  admixture  from  the  degree  of  color 
ation  two  observers  are  apt  to  differ. 

TABLE  VIII. — COMPARISON  OF  BRAIN-WEIGHTS  OF  OBSCURE  AFRO- 
AMERICANS    WITH    THOSE   OF   OBSCURE   EUROPEANS 

Can-    Afri- 
casians    cans 

Total   number    , 559        70 

Below  the   lowest   Caucasian,    1018 oo 

Above  the  highest  African,  nearly  white,   1587.  .  24 

Above  the  highest  black,  1560 29 

Approximately  equal,  within   5  grams 55         55 

Unrepresented   witnin   5   grams:    1261    (3);    1250 

(i);    1247    (4);    1191    (4);    1148    (2);    1105   (i)  15 

The  Africans  are  the  same  seventy  as  in  Tables  V  and  VI. 
The  Europeans  are  from  the  first  part  of  Table  I  of  Bischoff's 
series  (1880)  following  p.  171.  For  fifty-five  of  the  seventy 
African  weights  were  found  in  the  European  series  counter 
parts,  either  exact  or  differing  not  more  than  five  grams.  Of 
the  fifteen  for  which  no  such  approximate  counterparts  oc 
cur  in  the  European  series  there  are  three  of  1261  grams;  one 
of  1250;  four  of  1247;  four  of  1191;  two  of  1148,  and  one  of 
1105. 

This  and  the  following  table  substantiate  the  eminently  clear 
statement  of  the  .case  by  Prof.  Farrand,  p.  17. 

TABLE  IX. — NEARLY  IDENTICAL  BRAIN-WEIGHTS  OF  27  NOTABLE 
WHITES  AND  27  OBSCURE  NEGROES  SELECTED  FROM  108  OF  THE 
FORMER  AND  70  OF  THE  LATTER;  THE  HEAVY-FACED  NUMBERS 
ARE  FROM  FULL-BLACKS. 


Serial      Notable 
Number     Whites 
[19  higher] 


Obscure      Serial      Notable      Obscure 
Negroes    Number     Whites    Negroes 


20 
23 
29 
38 
40 
60 
62 
64 
65 
67 
72 
73 
76 
83 


1590 
1560 
1530 
1503 
1502 
1445 
1437 
1418 
1416 
1415 
1403 
1403 
1395 
1374 


1587 
1560 
1530 
1502 
1502 
1446 
1432 
1417 
1417 
1417 
1403 
1403 
1395 
1375 


84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

91 

92 

96 

97 

99 
100 
101 
103 

Averages 
48 


1373  1375 

1370  1375 

1365  1361 

1361  1361 

1358  1361 

1349  1350 

1332  1332 

1300  1304 

1290  1290 

1276  1276 

1272  1276 

1257  1261 

1250  1250 

[24  lower] 

1390.52  1391.04 


This  is  based  upon  Spitzka's  Table  I,  "List  of  brain-weights 
of  108  notable  Caucasians  of  various  nations,"  and  Bond  and 
Lamb's  list  of  brain-weights  of  65  obscure  Afro-Americans  plus 
the  5  mentioned  in  connection  with  Table  V.  The  serial 
numbers  of  the  notables  are  given  at  the  left  of  each  column. 
At  the  head  of  the  first  column  "19  higher,"  in  brackets,  indi 
cates  that  so  many  notable  weights  were  greater  than  any  of  the 
obscure;  at  the  foot  of  the  second  column  "24  lower"  indicates 
that  so  many  obscure  weights  were  less  than  the  lowest  notable. 
The  gaps  in  the  serial  numbers  indicate  notables  for  which 
there  were  no  approximate  counterparts  among  the  obscure. 

Of  course  a  natural  and  fairer  comparison  would  have  been 
between  equal  numbers  of  the  same  general  status;  but  there 
is  available  to  me  no  such  scries  of  obscure  white  Americans. 
It  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  24  of  the  obscure  Negro  brains 
are  lighter  than  the  lightest  of  the  notables ;  that  19  of  the  latter 
are  heavier  than  the  heaviest  of  the  former ;  or  that,  among  the 
higher  weights,  are  omitted  more  than  fifty  serial  numbers  be 
cause  there  were  no  approximate  counterparts  among  the 
Negroes.  But  surely  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  n  cases  there 
should  be  absolute  equality;  that  in  the  remaining  16  the 
difference  should  not  exceed  5  grams  (one-sixth  of  an  ounce).  ; 
that  the  excess  should  be  so  evenly  distributed  that  the  averages 
are  practically  identical ;  and  that  of  these  27  obscure  men  of 
African  descent  whose  brains  approximately  equalled  in  weight 
those  of  27  notable  whites,  16,  more  than  half,  were  full-blacks. 

TABLE  X. — SOME  STATISTICS  OF  THE  FIFTY-FIFTH  REGIMENT  OF 
MASSACHUSETTS  VOLUNTEER  INFANTRY,  COLORED;  THE  COM 
MISSIONED  OFFICERS  WERE  WHITE;  ONE,  GEORGE  T.  GARRISON, 
WAS  A  SON  OF  HIM  WHOM  GoLDWIN  SMITH  (1892)  CALLED 
A  "MORAL  CRUSADER  " 

980  Total  number  of  enlisted  men 

430  Mixed  blood 

550  Apparently  pure  black 

247  Had  been   slaves 

319  Could  read  and  write 

477  Could  read  only 

184  Could  neither  read  nor  write 

52  Were  church-members 

219  Were  married 

112  Died  from  disease 

54  Killed  in  action  or  died  from  wounds 


49 


TABLE   XI. — ABRIDGED    RECORD   OF   THE    ENLISTED    MEN    OF    THE 
FIFTY-FIFTH    MASSACHUSETTS   VOLUNTEER   INFANTRY,    COLORED. 

1863  Jan.  26.  Authority  of  Secretary  of  War  for  enlistment  on 

same    terms    as    white    soldiers,    $13.00    per    month,    plus 

$3.00  allowance  for  clothing 
May    12,    Enrolment   began 
July  25,  Service  in  South  began 
Nov.   28,   Refused  $10.00  per  month,   pay  of  laborers,   less 

$3.00  for  clothing 
December,   Refused   balance,   $6.00,    from   Massachusetts 

1864  Persistent  refusal  of  lower  pay 

June    18,   One   shot   for  resisting  officer 

July  2,  "Rivers  Causeway,"  took  initiative  in  action;  out  of 

about  350,   7  killed  and   19  wounded 
Oct.  7,  First  payment,  after  more  than  14  months 
October,  Celebration  decorous;  all  loans  repaid;  by  Adams 

Express  alone,  over  $60,000.00  to  families 
Nov.    30,    "Honey    Hill";    out    of    about    360    engaged,    32 

killed  and  88  wounded 
1865,  Sept.    23,    Mustered   out 

American  Negroes  in  the  Civil  War 

I  was  asked  to  speak  of  the  brain,  and  was  also  told 
that  I  might  emphasize  my  opinion  of  the  African  race 
by  a  few  words  upon  a  different  subject.  It  was  my  good 
fortune  to  enter  the  medical  service  of  the  army  in 
July,  1862,  and  to  be  commissioned  in  the  spring  of  1863 
as  one  of  the  medical  staff  of  the  Fifty-fifth  Massachu 
setts  Infantry  (colored)  ;  see  Tables  X  and  XL 

I  think  the  youths  of  to-day,  white  or  black,  do  not 
realize  under  what  circumstances  those  two  regiments, 
the  Fifty-fifth  and  the  Fifty-fourth,  went  into  the  field. 
They  went  not  only  against  the  prejudice  of  the  commun 
ity  and  the  indifference  of  the  government,  but  in  the  face 
of  Confederate  declarations  to  the  effect  that  if  captured 
they  should  be  treated  as  runaway  slaves.21  The  situation 
is  outlined  in  the  following  extract  from  Col.  Henry  Lee's 
"Shaw  Monument  Address,"  1897,  PP-  58-59- 

"No  one  can  appreciate  the  heroism  of  the  officers 
and  soldiers  [of  the  colored  Massachusetts  regiments] 
without  adding  to  the  savage  threats  of  the  enemy  the 

50 


disapprobation  of  friends,  the  antipathy  of  the  army, 
the  sneers  of  the  multitude  here;  without  reckoning 
the  fire  in  the  rear  as  well  as  the  fire  in  front.  One 
must  have  the  highest  form  of  courage  not  to  shrink 
from  such  dismaying  solitude." 

The  composition  and  record  of  the  Fifty-fifth  are 
indicated  in  Tables  X  and  IX,  below. 

After  our  regiment  had  been  arduously  engaged  in 
the  siege  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  in  the  summer  of  '63,  for 
some  months,  the  paymaster  appeared  with  orders  to 
pay  the  enlisted  men  ten  dollars  a  month,  the  wage  of 
laborers,  less  three  dollars  a  month  for  clothing!22 

The  Fifty-fourth  and  the  Fifty-fifth  had  been  enlisted 
in  Massachusetts  under  orders  of  the  Secretary  of  War. 
which  are  on  record,  and  under  authority  from  Governor 
Andrew,  and  with  the  full  understanding  upon  the  part 
of  everyone  concerned  in  Massachusetts,  and  with  the 
understanding  of  the  men  themselves,  that  they  were 
to  be  treated  in  every  respect  like  white  troops,  the  pay 
of  which  was  thirteen  dollars  besides  the  regular  uni 
form.  The  men  consulted  and  decided  that  they  would 
not  accept  ten  dollars  a  month.  That  was  on  the  28th 
of  November. 

21.  The  actual  treatment  of   colored  prisoners   is   described  by 
Emilio,    "Appendix."       For    various    official    Confederate    utter 
ances  see  "War  Records,"  vol.  22,  p.  965;  Serial  No.  117,  p.  946, 
and  Serial  No.  118,  p.  940;  the  last  is  a  joint  resolution  of  the 
Confederate  Congress,  May  I,  1863,  to  the  effect  that  the  white 
officers   of   colored  troops   should   be  put   to   death;    this   threat 
was  never  carried  out.      h>ee  also  extracts  in   The  Nation,  Sep 
tember  28,  1899,  p.  241. 

22.  For  various  accounts  of  the  matter  of  the  pay  of  these  and 
other  colored  troops  see  Fox    (1868),   Emilio    (1894),  Hallowell 
(1897),  Lee  and  Kennard   (1897),  Pearson   (1904,  vol.  2,  pp.  94- 
120),  and  my  Garrison  address  (1905).      So  moderate  a  man  as 
Jeffries    Wyman — whose    most    violent    expletive,    "By    George," 
was  heard  by  me  only  once —  wrote  me  as  follows  under  date  of 
May  26,  1864 :     "All  you  say  about  the  pay  of  the  soldiers  puts 
the   Government   in   a  very   shabby  light ;   its  members   are   dis 
gracing  themselves  in  the  eyes  of  the  world." 

51 


In  December,  knowing  the  circumstances,  knowing 
that  a  goo;l  many  of  them  were  without  other  means, 
that  some  were  married,  and  that  others  had  mothers 
or  fathers  or  friends  that  they  wished  to  help  —  the 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts  passed  a  law  to  the  effect 
that  provisionally  the  state  should  make  up  the  differ 
ence  between  what  was  offered  by  the  United  States  and 
what  the  men  felt  they  had  a  right  to  receive. 

The  State  Commissioners  and  the  officers  of  the  regi 
ment  urged  the  men  to  accept  this  as  a  compromise  for 
the  sake  of  their  families.  Again  they  met  and  con 
sulted  and  decided,  almost  unanimously,  that  they  would 
net  take  the  money.  They  said,  "We  have  not  enlisted 
in  this  war  for  pay ;  we  are  here  to  fight  for  our  coun 
try  and  for  the  honor  of  our  race,  and  we  will  take 
nothing  until  the  United  States  government  pays  what  i^ 
our  due,  and  what  we  were  promised  when  we  enlisted." 

Months  passed.  The  men  continued  to  work,  to 
watch,  to  fight — and  to  wait  for  justice. 

In  the  meantime  a  few  of  them  had  lost  control  of 
themselves — some  of  us  whites  lose  control  of  our 
selves — ami  one  resisted  an  officer.  For  his  offense  I 
saw  that  man  shot.  The  government  that  could  not 
find  law  to  pay  him  otherwise  than  as  a  laborer  could 
nevertheless  find  law  to  shoot  him  as  a  soldier. 

During  this  payless  period  both  regiments  had  fought 
bravely.  The  attack  of  the  Fifty- fourth  upon  Fort 
Wagner  (see  Fmilio,  Hallowell,  Lee  and  Kennard) 
could  not  be  surpassed  for  heroism.  Col.  Shaw  and  the 
other  officers  gallantly  led  and  were  as  gallantly  sup 
ported  by  the  enlisted  men. 

If  it  be  said,  Negro  soldiers  merely  follow  their  offi 
cers  and  do  what  they  are  told,  I  reply  that  on  one 
occasion23  when  our  officers  suppose:!  the  order  was  to 

23.  At  Rivers  Causeway,  James  Island,  near  Charleston,   S.  C.. 
(July  2,  1864,),  as  described  by  Fox  (1868,  pp.  29-32)  and  myself 

52 


retire,  the  enlisted  men  rushed  forward,  captured  two 
field-pieces,  and  fired  them  upon  the  retreating  foe.  If, 
again,  it  be  said,  it  is  natural  for  the  male  animal  to 
fight,  and  physical  courage  is  shared  with  the  brutes; 
then  I  reply  that  these  men  displayed  moral  courage  and 
self-restraint  under  the  very  trying  conditions  described 
above  in  respect  to  their  pay.  Nor  was  this  all.  When 
at  last  the  United  States  government  came  to  its  senses ; 
when  at  last  it  decided  to  do  justice,  fourteen  months 
after  their  service  began,24  then  these  men  received  their 
money,  and  they  had  a  celebration  not  nearly  as  boister 
ous  as  that  in  a  college  town  after  the  victory  of  an 
athletic  team. 

To  refute  the  declaration  that  the  Negro,  when  he 
gets  his  money,  squanders  it,  I  add  that  out  of  that  first 
payment  to  the  Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts  there  was  sent 
home  to  the  wives  and  families  and  friends  in  Massa 
chusetts  by  the  Adams  Express  Company  alone — not 
counting  other  express  companies,  and  other  means  of 
conveyance — there  was  sent  home  by  these  soldiers, 
majiy  of  whom  had  been  slaves,  $60,000  !25 

Xor  is  this  all.  Some  months  earlier,  at  the  urgent 
request  of  the  soldiers,  the  officers  had  received  their 
pay.  Then  we  had  loaned  various  sums  to  them,  and 
out  of  what  had  been  loaned  during  that  year  and  a  quar 
ter  by  the  officers,  in  sums  ranging  anywhere  from  fifty- 
dollars  down  to  twenty-five  cents,  there  is  not  on  record 
or  in  recollection  a  single  instance  in  which  payment  was 
not  made  and  made  promptly.  I  will  not  say  what  white 
soldiers  would  have  done  under  similar  circumstances. 
Hut  could  they  have  behaved  any  better  ? 

(1906,  p.  24).  A  comparable  action  of  white  enlisted  men  is 
said  to  have  occurred  at  Missionary  Ridge. 

24.  With   the   Fifty-fourth   the   service   in   the   field   began   two 
months  earlier. 

25.  See  Fox  (1868,  n.  37)  J  niy  letter  of  Oct.  16,  1864,  says  $65,- 
ooo.oo,  but  Fox  is  probably  correct. 

53 


Being  myself  merely  a  student  of  natural' history,  I  have 
appealed  to  several  professors  of  wnnatural  history,  and 
have  failed  as  yet  to  learn  that,  taking  into  account  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  payment  of  the  two  colored  Massa 
chusetts  regiments,  there  has  ever  been  a  finer  example 
of  self-renunciation  and  sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  what 
was  regarded  as  a  principle.20 

Shall  we  now  deny  civil  and  political  rights,  and  educa 
tional  and  industrial  opportunities,  to  men  merely  be 
cause  they  are  black,  because  the  average  weight  of  their 
brains  is  a  little  less,  and  because  a  certain  region  of  the 
brain  may  be  more  frequently  less  developed,  when  two 
4housand  of  their  fellows,  nearly  half  a  century  ago. 
could  manifest  not  merely  the  highest  kind  of  physical 
courage,  but  as  high  a  kind  of  moral  courage,  as  has 
been  chronicled  in  the  history  of  the  world? 


26.  Should  the  writer  be  spared  until  other  conditions  permit 
he  will  regard  it  as  a  sacred  duty  to  put  in  a  form  accessible 
to  others  his  observations  and  impressions  of  the  military  and 
personal  conduct  of  the  members  of  the  Fifty-fifth  Massachu 
setts  as  recorded  in  daily  letters,  all  of  which  have  been  pre 
served. 


Fig.  i,  No.  322,  Obscure  Mulatto. 

Fig.  2,  No.  965,  White  Murderer,  Ruloff. 

The  specimens  represented  above  were  photographed  together 
and  reduced  to  a  little  less  than  one-third  natural  size.  They 
are  the  "skull-caps"  (calvas  or  calvaria),  as  sawn  off  the  top 
of  the  skull  for  the  removal  of  the  brain.  That  of  the  mulatto 
was  cut  at  a  lower  level  than  the  other ;  had  the  latter  been 
sawn  at  the  same  level  some  portions  of  the  cut  edges  might  not 
have  been  quite  so  wide,  but  the  rest  of  the  skull  was  not  pre 
served  and  the  question  cannot  be  settled ;  even  allowing  for 
this  the  white  skull  is  much  thicker  than  the  mulatto;  both  are 
exceptional;  see  p.  34. 

As  remarked  by  Huxley  in  the  passage  quoted  on  p.  23,  the 
African  skull  is  usually  narrow,  and^the  one  figured  above  may 
be  fairly  representative ;  the  Caucasian  skull  seems  to  me  un 
usually  short  and  rounded.  In  the  latter  the  small  hole  at 
either  side  is  artificial.  In  Fig.  I,  at  the  upper  end.  corre 
sponding  with  the  forehead,  are  seen  the  slight  frontal  sinuses 
between  the  inner  and  outer  tables  of  the  skull;  they  do  not 
appear  in  the  other  skull,  but  may  have  existed  at  a  lower  level. 

55 


Fig.  3,  No.  322,  Obscure  Mulatto. 

Fig.  4,  White  Philosopher  and  Mathematician,  Chauncey 
Wright. 

Dorsal  (upper)  aspects  of  two  cerebral  hemispheres,  photo 
graphed  together  so  as  to  be  a  little  less  than  one-half  natural 
size.  With  both  there  is  an  unusual  simplicity  of  the  fissures 
and  the  intervening  gyres  (convolutions),  as  mentioned  on  p.  34. 
The  more  common  conditions  appear  in  Fig.  5. 

The  mulatto  brain  was  hardened  in  the  skull  and  hence  re 
tains  its  original  form.  That  of  Wright  evidently  underwent 
some  distortion  after  removal,  but — as  appears  when  viewed 
at  a  different  angle — the  front  (upper,  in  cut)  end  was  unusually 
square.  The  mulatto  brain  was  not  weighed  fresh ;  Wright's 
weighed  1516  grams,  53.50  ounces. 

Both  brains  present  fissural  peculiarities  which  are  discussed  in 
my  "Handbook  article,  Figs.  762  et  seq.,  and  Fig.  770.  In  Fig. 
4  the  Central  fissure  is  interrupted  by  an  isthmus  marked  by  a 
black  x ;  in  Fig.  3  the  continuous  fissure  passes  behind  the  two 
similar  marks  and  the  paper  strip  bearing  the  number. 

56 


p 


Fig.  5.  The  continuous  black  line  is  the  outline  of  the  left 
cerebral  hemisphere  of  No.  3652;  the  interrupted  line  is  the  out 
line  of  the  right  hemisphere  of  No.  2912.  They  were  photo 
graphed  together  so  as  to  be  about  one-third  natural  size.  On 
2912  the  Central  fissure  is  marked  C;  on  3652  its  course  is  shown 
by  the  undulating  black  line ;  the  shorter  line  at  the  lower  margin 
represents  part  of  the  Sylvian  fissure. 

These  are  the  opposite  halves  of  the  cerebrums  of  two 
very  unlike  persons.  The  right  half  is  from  G.  F.,  an  illiterate 
black  janitor.  The  left  from  a  white  jurist  and  politician.  As 
an  ally  of  Tammany  Hall  he  probably  condoned,  if  he  did  not 
encourage,  the  race  riots  in  this  city  in  the  spring  of  1863  when 
the  first  northern  colored  troops  enlisted  in  spite  of  Democratic 
opposition.  If  so,  we  may  charitably  ascribe  his  conduct  to 
sharing  the  general  belief  that  every  Negro's  brain  is  so  small 
as  to  unfit  him  for  citizenship  or  even  for  military  service.  ;Yet 
the  brain  of  the  black  janiter  weighed  5  ounces  more  than  that 
of  the  white  jurist  (Table  3),  and  now,  when  the  left  half  of  the 
latter  is  held  against  the  right  half  of  the  former  so  that  the 
lower  margins  coincide,  at  nearly  all  other  points  the  black's 
outline  may  be  seen  beyond  the  white's.  Let  us  hope  that 
X.  Y.  Z.  now  rejoices  that  at  least  one  of  the  blunders  of  his 
^'fe  has  been  rectified  after  his  death. 

57 


Fig.  7 
No.  3564 
Orang 


Fig.   6 
No.  3557 
Baboon. 


All  about  two-thirds  natural  size. 
58 


Fig.  9,  No.  3334,  White  Philosopher  and  Mathematician. 

This  and  the  figures  on  the  opposite  page  are  from  photo 
graphs  of  blackboard  diagrams  (themselves  based  on  photo 
graphs)  of  the  left  cerebral  hemispheres,  reduced  to  about  two- 
thirds  natural  size.  The  Sylvian  fissure  is  named  on  all;  the 
upper  end  of  the  Central  is  indicated  by  C;  the  O  indicates  the 
location  of  the  Occipital  fissure,  most  of  which  is  on  the  mesal 
(median  or  inner)  aspect.  There  is  an  obvious  community  of 
general  pattern  of  fissuration,  by  which  any  of  them  would  be 
recognized  as  a  primate  rather  than  a  dog,  sheep,  or  other 
mammal.  The  orang  was  unusually  intelligent,  and  the  baboon 
was  highly  trained  in  a  show.  The  black  was  the  illiterate 
janitor,  G.  R,  mentioned  on  .p.  34;  he  and  the  white  philos 
opher  are  included  in  Table  III.  The  two  present  individual 
differences  of  fissuration,  such  as  might  occur  between  two 
whites  or  two  blacks,  but  no  racial  differences  recognized  by  me. 
Transactions  of  the  frontal  lobes  are  represented  in  Figs.  10 
and  ii. 


59 


Upright 


Jurists 


Unscrupulous 


Orang 


Baboon 


Fig.  10.  Transactions  of  the  frontal  lobes  of  a  baboon,  No. 
3557,  an  orang,  No.  3564,  an  "upright  judge,"  No.  2870,  and 
an  unscrupulous,  intemperate  jurist-politician,  No.  3652.  These 
specimens  and  the  four  represented  on  the  opposite  page  were 
prepared  in  the  same  manner  as  described  on  p.  36  and  photo 
graphed  all  together  so  as  to  be. reduced  in  the  same  degree  to 
about  five-sevenths  of  the  natural  size. 

The  sections  of  the  orang  and  the  baboon  (both  unusually  in 
telligent  individuals)  display  decided  inferiority  as  to  both  form 
and  extent.  Between  the  two  jurists  there  is  little  difference, 
but  what  there  is  seems  to  favor  him  of  the  higher  character 
and  greater  self-control  (2870). 


60 


Mulatto  thief 


White  murderer 


Black  janitor  White  philosopher 

Fig.  ii.  With  the  white  philosopher  (3334)  and  the  illiterate 
black  janitor  (2912)  the  ventral  excavation  is  nearly  equal,  inn 
the  latter  presents  a  dorso-lateral  flattening  that  is  wholly  absent 
from  the  former. 

The  white  murderer  (3335)  equals  the  other  three  whites  in 
form  and  surpasses  them  in  area.  There  is  a  slight  ventral 
concavity  which  does  not  appear  at  all  in  the  mulatto  thief 
(3118)  ;  in  the  latter,  moreover,  the  slight  dorsal  concavity  is 
deceptive,  and  due  to  the  breaking  off  of  a  slightly  attached 
piece ;  the  natural  outline  at  that  point  is  rounded. 

For  general  commentary  see  p.  37. 

61 


Fig.  12.  .Transaction  of  Cat's  Brain,  enlarged.  This  and 
Fig.  13  on  the  opposite  page  are  to  be  considered  together.  Both 
are  from  drawings  kindly  loaned  by  Spitzka;  similar  reproduc 
tions  form  part  of  Plate  XVI  of  his  paper,  1907.  They  are  semi- 
diagrammatic  representations  of  the  main  features  of  the  two 
cerebrums  when  cut  across  at  nearly  the  same  level.  The  meson 
(middle  plane)  corresponds  with  the  cleft  nearer  the  right  of 
each  figure,  most  of  that  half  being  omitted  to  save  space.  The 
two  are  represented  as  of  the  same  size.  The  darker  marginal 
zone  represents  the  cortex;  this  and  the  other  dark  areas  are 
cinerea  or  gray  matter,  composed  in  part  of  nerve-cells ;  the 
light  areas  represent  alba,  composed  of  nerve-fibers.  The  black 
lines  in  the  ahba  indicate  the  general  direction  of  the  fibers.  The 
callosum  (indicated  by  C  on  Fig.  12)  is  a  thick  oheet  of  fibers 
connecting  the  two  cerebral  hemispheres  at  the  bottom  of  the 
mesal  cleft. 

6s 


Fig.  13.  Transection  of  Human  Brain,  reduced.  For  the 
general  features  see  the  description  of  Fig.  12. 

Contrary  to  the  general  impression  the  human  brain  has  a 
relatively  larger  amount  of  the  alba  (white  matter)  composed  of 
fibers  connecting  (a)  the  cerebral  cortex  with  the  lower  parts 
of  the  brain  and  so,  indirectly,  with  the  body;  (b)  the  right  and 
left  hemispheres,  the  callosum;  (c)  the  several  portions  of  the 
same  hemisphere,  the  association  fibers;  p.  34.  Man's  su 
periority  is  supposed  to  be  correlated  with  the  development  of 
these  association  fibers  and  of  the  cortical  areas  \vith  which 
they  are  connected.  Spitzka  found  the  callosum  unusually  large 
in  an  eminent  naturalist,  Joseph  Leidy,  and  thinks  there  is  evi 
dence  of  correlation  in  this  respect  as  between  individuals  and 
perhaps  races. 

63 


List  of  Publications  Referred  to 

Bean,  R.  B.,  1906. — The  Negro  brain.  The  Century,  Septem 
ber,  1906,  pp.  778-784,  with  map,  figures  and  tables.  (Unless 
otherwise  indicated  by  A.  J.  A.  this  article  will  be  understood 
as  referred  to  since  it  is  the  more  likely  to  be  accessible  to 
readers  of  the  present  publication.) 

— 1906. — Some  racial  peculiarities  of  the  Xegro  brain. 
American  Journal  of  Anatomy,  vol.  5,  No.  4,  September,  1906. 
Pp-  353~432«  with  many  tables,  charts,  and  figures. 

Bischoff,  T.  L.  W.  v.,  1880. — Das  Hirngewicht  des  Menschen. 
O.,  pp.  171,  with  about  as  many  pages  of  Tables. 

Boas,  F.,  1906. — Commencement  Address  at  Atlanta  Univer 
sity,  May  31,  1906.  Atlanta  University  Leaflet,  No.  19. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,   1908. — Scotch  and  Negro  Progress  Weigh 
e:l.      Remarks,  as  reported  in  the  New  York   Tribune,  December 
20,    1908. 

Donaldson,  H.  H.,  1895. — The-  growth  of  the  brain.  Con 
temporary  Science  Series,  O.,  pp.  374.  London. 

— 1908. — The  weight  of  the  brain  as  modified  by  nutrition 
and  disease.  Read  before  the  American  Neurological  Associa 
tion.  May,  1908.  (Manuscript  copy.) 

— 1909. — Some  conditions  modifying  the  interpretation  of  hu 
man  brain-weight  records.  Read  at  the  General  Meeting  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  April  23,  1909.  (Manuscript 
copy. ) 

Emilio,  L.  K,  1894. — A  Brave  Black  Regiment.  History  of 
the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Infantry,  1863-1865. 
Second  ed.,  O.,  pp.  452,  portraits  and  maps.  Boston. 

Fox,  C.  B.,  1868.— Record  of  the  service  of  the  Fifty-fifth 
Massachusetts  Volunteer  Infantry.  Privately  printed  by  the 
Regimental  Association,  Cambridge.  O.,  pp.  194,  1868. 

Hallowell,  N.  P.,  1897.— The  Negro  as  a  Soldier  in  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion.  Read  before  the  Military  Historical  Society 
of  Massachusetts,  Jan.  5,  1892.  O.,  pp.  29,  Boston,  1897. 

Hasskarl,  G.  C.  H.,  1898. — The  Missing  Link,  or  the  Negro's 
Ethnological  Status.  D.,  pp.  176.  Reprinted  from  the  East 
ern  Lutheran.  Published  by  the  author,  Philadelphia. 

Hrdlicka,  Ales,  1905. — Brain-weight  in  vertebrates.  O.,  pp. 
89-112.  Reprinted  from  Smithsonian  Miscellaneous  Collections, 
Quarterly  Issue,  vol.  48. 

Hunt,  San  ford  B.,  1867,  1869. — The  Negro  as  a  soldier.  Jour 
nal  of  Psychological  Medicine  and  Jurisprudence,  October,  1867, 
p.  182.  Also  in  the  Anthropological  Review^  vol.  7,  pp.  40-54, 
January,  1867.  [From  the  footnote  to  p.  40  it  may  be  inferred 
that  this  paper  was  printed  originally  as  a  report  to  the  U.  S. 


Sanitary    Commission,    but    I    have    been    unable    to    locate    it 
among  its  publications.] 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  1865. — Emancipation,  black  and  white.  Col 
lected  Essays,  vol.  3,  Science  and  Education,  1894,  pp.  66-75. 

— On  the  African  Negro.  Methods  and  Results  of 
Ethnology,  Essays,  vol.  VII,  233. 

Laboulbene,  1849. — Comptcs  Rendus  des  Seances  et  Memoires 
de  la  Societc  de  Biologic  dc  Paris,  p.  6. 

Lamb,  D.  S.,  1894. — Some  brain-weights  in  the  Negro  race. 
American  Anthropologist,  N.  S.,  vol.  6,  pp.  364-366.  For 
original  records  of  1865-6,  see  under  Table  V,  supra. 

Lee,  H.,  and  Kennard,  M.  P.,  Committee,  1897. — The  Monu 
ment  to  Robert  Gould  Shaw.  Q.,  pp.  98,  Boston. 

Macnamara,  N.  C,  and  Burne,  R.  H.,  1903. — The  Cerebrum 
of  a  Microcephalic  Idiot.  Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology, 
N.  S.,  vol.  17,  pp.  258-265,  6  figures. 

Macnamara,  N.  C.,  1908. — Human  speech.  The  International 
Scientific  Series,  vol.  XCV.  O.,  pp.  284.  London. 

Mall,  F.  P.,  1909. — On  Several  Anatomical  Characters  of  the 
Human  Brain,  said  to  Varv  According  to  Race  and  Sex,  with 
especial  reference  to  the  Frontal  Lobe.  American  Journal  of 
Anatomy,  vol.  IX.,  1-32,  February,  1909. 

Owen,  R.,  1868.— On  the  Anatomy  of  Vertebrates,  vol.  3,  O., 
pp.  915. 

Pearson,  H.  G.,  1904. — The  life  of  John  A.  Andrew,  Gover 
nor  of  Massachusetts,  1861-1865.  O.,  2  vols.  Boston  and  New 
York. 

Smith,  Goldwin,  1892. — The  Moral  Crusader,  William  Lloyd 
Garrison.  D.,  pp.  190,  Toronto. 

Smith,  G.  Elliott,  1902. — Descriptions  of  the  Brains  of  Verte 
brates  in  vol.  2  of  the  Physiological  Catalogue  of  the  Museum 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of  England.  1902. 

Spitzka,  E.  A.,  1902. — Contributions  to  the  Encephalic  Anato 
my  of  the  Races;  First  paper;  Three  Eskimo  brains.  American 
Journal  of  Anatomy,  vol.  2,  pp.  25-71. 

— 1903. — Brain-weights  of  Animals  with  special  Reference  to 
the  Weight  of  the  Brain  in  the  Macaque  Monkey.  Jour,  of 
Comp.  Neurology,  vol.  13,  pp.  9-17,  1903. 

— 1907. — A  Study  of  the  Brains  of  Six  Eminent  Scientists 
and  Scholars,  etc.  Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  N.  S.,  vol.  21,  part  3.  Philadelphia. 

Turner,  Sir  William,  1897. — Some  Distinctive  Characters  of 
the  Human  Structure.  Address  before  the  Anthropological 
Section  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science.  Abstract  in  Britisli  Medical  Journal,  August  2ist, 
1897,  PP-  450-453- 

65 


Waldeyer,  1894.— Ueber  einige  anthropologisch  bemerkens- 
werthe  Befunde  an  Negerhirnen.  Berlin  Akad.  d.  Wissenschaften, 
Sistungsberichte,  1894,  Band  II,  pp.  1213-1221. 

Wilder,  B.  G.,  1885.— On  Two  Little-known  Cerebral  Fissures, 
with  Suggestions  as  to  Fissural  and  Gyral  Names.  Amer. 
Neurol.  Asso.,  Transactions.  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental 
Disease,  vol.  12. 

— 1889. — Article,  Brain,  Gross  or  Macroscopic  anatomy.  Buck's 
Reference  Handbook  of  the  Medical  Sciences,  vol.  8,  pp.  107- 
164;  also  vol.  9,  pp.  99-110.  Second  edition,  vol.  2,  pp.  136-218, 
1900. 

1905. — Two  examples   of   the   Negro's   Courage,     Physical 

and  Moral.  Address  at  the  Garrison  Centenary,  Dec.  10,  1905. 
Alexander's  Magazine,  January  and  February.  1906.  See  also 
the  Sunday  News,  Charleston,  S.  C,  Dec.  7,  1902. 

— 1907. — The  Educational  Uses  of  Sharks  and  Rays,  especial 
ly  the  Acanth  Shark.  Proceedings  of  the  I2th  annual  meeting  of 
the  New  York  State  Science  Teachers  Association,  Bulletin  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  No.  431,  1907,  pp. 
95-96.  (This  refers  to  my  previous  papers  on  the  same  sub 
ject.) 

Woodworth,  B.  S.,  1909. — Racial  Differences  in  Mental  Traits. 
Address  before  the  Section  in  Anthropology  and  Psychology, 
American  Association  Adv.  Science,  1909.  Science,  February 
4,  1910.  171-186. 

Work,  M.  N.,  1906. — The  Negro  Brain.  Article  3  of  "The 
Health  and  Physique  of  the  Negro  American."  The  Atlanta 
University  Publications,  No.  n,  1906.  Pp.  24-27.  W.  E.  B. 
DuBois,  Editor. 

Wyman,  Jeffries,  1847. — Osteology  of  the  Gorilla.  Part  of  a 
paper  by  Savage  and  himself.  Boston  Society  of  Natural  His 
tory,  Proceedings,  Aug.  i8th.  Boston  Journal  of  Natural  His 
tory,  vol.  5,  part  4,  pp.  417-442.  [Of  this  very  important  memoir 
some  reprints  were  made  for  the  author  in  quarto  form ;  for 
information  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  such  the  present  writer 
will  be  grateful.] 

1868. — Observations  on  Crania.  Boston  Society  of  Natural 

History,  Proceedings,  vol.  n,  1868,  pp.  440-462. 

1862. — Account  of  the  dissection  of  a  Hottentot.  Boston 

Society  of  Natural  History,  Proceedings,  April  2,  1862,  vol.  9, 
PP-  56-57;  also  pp.  352-357,  and  Anthropological  Rei'iew,  III, 
330-335- 


66. 


Address  of 

Edwin  R.  A.  Seligman 

Professor  of  Political  Economy 

at 

Columbia  University 

As  one  of  the  advocates  of  that  unnatural  science  of 
which  we  have  just  heard,  1  desire  to  say  a  word  only 
as  to  the  phase  of  the  subject  which  falls  directly  within 
my  own  sphere,  that  is,  of  economics  an.l  social  science. 
If  there  is  anything  that  has  been  brought  out  in  the 
papers  this  morning,  I  think  it  is  the  keen  realization  of 
the  fact  that  we  must  indeed  not  overlook  the  forces  of 
heredity  or  disparage  them.  After  all,  the  controlling, 
the  really  important  point  to  the  student  of  social  evolu 
tion  is  the  fact  of  social  environment.  We  may  take  a 
leaf  out  of  the  book  of  that  great  wizard  of  California, 
Mr.  Burbank,  who  has  shown  us  how  in  the  course 
of  several  generations  the  character  of  a  plant  can  be  so 
completely  changed  that  we  will  have  a  new  genus.  Any 
one  who  has  given  much  study  to  the  forces  of  asso 
ciation,  and  especially  of  economic  progress,  must  realize 
that  within  a  space  of  a  very  few  generations  we  find 
the  most  profound  alterations  in  what  seems  to  be 
the  very  texture  of  human  life. 

While  I  do  not  wish  to  range  through  the  whole  field 
of  social  life,  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
amid  all  the  other  important  forces  at  work,  the  economic 

67 


consideration  is  the  one  which  is  receiving  far  more  at 
tention  to-day  than  it  ever  did  before.  And  therein 
lie  the  hope  and  the  potency  of  the  future.  It  is  just 
because  the  economic  environment  is  changing,  just 
because  there  is  a  hope  in  the  future  of  such  funda 
mental  alterations  in  the  environment  of  the  American 
Negro,  that  we  can  look  forward  with  confidence  to  a 
point  yet  to  come.  At  the  same  time  I  desire  to  empha 
size  in  the  few  words  I  have  to  say,  one  scientific  con 
clusion  :  the  necessity  of  distinguishing  between  the 
individual  and  the  group  and  the  danger  of  making 
unduly  broad  generalizations.  What  we  need  above  all 
in  social  life  is  to  be  able  to  distinguish  in  our  attitude 
to  our  fellows,  between  the  individual  and  the  group. 

As  a  member  of  a  race  which  has  also  borne  hard 
ships,  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  this  particular  fact :  It  is 
often  said  of  the  Jews  that  they  run  through  the  whole 
gamut  of  society;  they  have  both  the  Jesus  type  and  the 
Shylock  type,  coming  from  one  and  the  same  race.  Now 
the  trouble  with  the  Negro  is  that  the  ordinary  man  con 
siders  only  the  Shylock  type,  if  there  is  a  man  that  cor 
responds  to  the  Shylock  type,  and  that  we  have  not  yet 
learned  to  appreciate  the  Jesus  type.  To  me  there  is 
nothing  more  tragic  in  the  whole  of  human  experience 
than  the  lot  of  that  American  Negro,  cultivated,  refined 
gentleman,  who  at  the  same  time  is  thrown  into  the  cal 
dron  and  fused  with  a  mass  of  his  unhappy  and  more 
unfortunate  brethren.  The  scientific  man,  of  course, 
knows  no  prejudice.  I  say  that,  and  yet  I  remember 
that  when  I  was  a  student  at  a  German  university, 
shortly  after  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  there  was  a  strain 
for  some  time  between  the  French  and  the  Germans, 
which  shows  of  course  that  we- are  first  human  and 
secondly  scientific.  But  at  least  it  may  be  said  that  the 
more  scientific  we  are,  the  less  prejudice  we  have. 

68 


The  great  advantage  of  a  meeting  like  this  and  the 
great  benefit  of  all  knowledge  and  of  all  science,  is  that 
it  tends  gradually  to  enable  the  ordinary  man  to  distin 
guish  between  the  individual  and  the  group.  That 
'see'mVto  me  to  be  the  real  hope  for  the  future,  because 
after  all,  we  can  expect  to  see  the  elevation  of  the  great 
mass  come  about  only  very,  very  slowly.  The  great 
mass  of  any  nation  to-day  is  very  little  different  from 
the  great  mass  of  people  thousands  and  thousands  of 
years  ago.  It  is  the  great  man,  it  is  the  sport  or  freak, 
of  whom  the  naturalists  tell  us,  who  gradually  by  his  own 
influence,  by  his  own  great  personality  and  example,  is 
able  slowly  to  mold  and  to  change  these  general  forces. 

As  regards  the  general  forces,  you  must  not  be  misled 
even  if  you  look  at  the  economic  point  of  view.  My  own 
conviction  is  that  things  are  going  to  get  worse  before 
they  get  better  in  this  country,  so  far  as  the  Negro  ques 
tion  is  concerned,  simply  because  of  the  exceeding  diffi 
culty  of  bringing  to  bear  the  forces  of  science  upon  popu 
lar  imagination.  I  do  not  share  the  pessimistic  view,  be 
cause  my  view  is  not  pessimistic.  But  it  is  nonetheless 
true  that  certain  economic  conditions  are  now  at  work 
in  the  South  which  are  temporarily  going  to  make 
things  worse.  It  is  because  the  "poor  white  trash," 
as  he  is  called,  the  ordinary  white  man,  is  now 
coming  to  his  own  in  the  South,  that  the  economic 
competition  and  the  economic  pressure  are  going  to  be 
felt  more  severely  than  before.  And  the  hope  we  have 
of  the  future  is  that  slowly  and  gradually  the  great  men — 
both  the  white  and  the  black — that  those  great  men  will 
utilize  all  the  forces  of  science  and  all  the  forces  of  the 
higher  ethics,  and  will  gradually  bring  to  bear  upon  this 
larger  mass  that  environs  us  all,  an  appreciation  of  the 
more  human  and  the  more  scientific  aspect  of  the  case. 
Therefore,  gentlemen,  let  us  not  be  mistaken;  let  us  be 

69 


prepared  to  face  the  future  as  it  comes;  but  let  us  be 
prepared  also  to  put  up  a  good  fight. 

By  that  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  I  have  not 
the  utmost  sympathy  with  our  friends  of  the  South, 
both  white  and  black.  The  human  race  is  about  the  same 
all  over.  We  are  all,  so  far  as  we  are  not  suffused  with 
the  scientific  instinct,  full  of  prejudice.  Put  yourselves, 
the  Negro  man  and  woman,  into  the  conditions  in  which 
the  white  man  and  woman  are,  and  many  of  you  would 
feel  about  the  whole  subject  as  they  do.  We  have  a  com 
paratively  easy  time  in  the  North.  We  have  not  the  great 
temptations  to  meet.  We  must  not  be  too  harsh  in  our 
judgments.  But  what  we  must  always  do  is  to  hold  forth 
and  emblazon  on  our  banner  the  scientific  aspect  of  the 
question  and  then  there  can  be  only  one  answer. 

That  being  true,  I  say  there  is  call  for  two  qualities 
on  the  part  of  the  rank  and  file,  as  well  as  among  the 
leaders,  of  the  Negro  race — the  quality  of  patience, 
of  recognizing  that  mankind  moves  very  slowly, 
and  that  prejudice  gives  way  to  science  still  more  slow 
ly;  but  on  the  other  hand,  the  fervent  hope  and  the  con 
fident  expectation  that  in  the  long  run,  and  in  the  not  too 
long  run,  the  forces  of  science  and  the  ethical  forces, 
which  after  all  are  deep  down  in  the  heart  of  every  one 
of  us,  white  and  black — that  those  forces  will  continue 
to  grow  in  their  influence  and  finally  achieve  their 
desired  and  deserved  success. 


Address  of 

John  Dewey 

Professor  of  Philosophy 
Columbia  University 

The  ground  has  already  been  so  well  covered  in  the 
matter  of  this  scientific  discussion,  that  I  shall  de 
tain  you  but  a  moment  or  two,  in  fact  I  should  not  have 
appeared  at  all,  were  it  not  that  it  gave  me  the  oppor 
tunity  to  express  my  sympathy  with  the  purpose  of  this 
gathering  and  to  give  myself  that  privilege,  I  venture  to 
detain  you  for  these  very  few  moments.  One  point  that 
has  been  made  on  the  scientific  side,  might  perhaps  be 
emphasized,  namely  with  reference  to  the  doctrine  of 
heredity. 

It  was  for  a  long  time  the  assumption — an  assumption 
because  there  was  no  evidence  or  consideration  of  evi 
dence — that  acquired  characteristics  of  heredity,  in  other 
words  capacities  which  the  individual  acquired  through 
his  home  life  and  training,  modified  the  stock  that  was 
handed  down.  Now  the  whole  tendency  of  biological 
science  at  the  present  time  is  to  make  it  reasonably  cer 
tain  that  the  characteristics  which  the  individual  acquired 
are  not  transmissible,  or  if  they  are  transmissible,  then 
in  such  a  small  degree  as  to  be  comparatively  and  rela 
tively  negligible.  At  first  sight  this  taken  by  itself  may 
seem  to  be  a  disappointing  and  discouraging  doctrine, 
that  what  one  individual  attains  by  his  own  effort  and 


training,  does  not  modify  the  level  from  which  the  next 
generation  then  starts.  But  we  have  put  over  against 
that  this  other  point  that  has  been  made  with  reference 
to  social  heredity,  and  the  fact  that  there  is  a  great  dif 
ference  between  mental  culture  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  individual  and  mental  culture  from  the  standpoint  of 
society. 

This  doctrine  that  acquired  characteristics  are  not  trans 
mitted  becomes  a  very  encouraging  doctrine  because  it 
means,  so  far  as  individuals  are  concerned,  that  they  have 
a  full,  fair  and  free  social  opportunity.  Each  generation 
biologically  commences  over  again  very  much  on  the 
level  of  the  individuals  of  the  past  generation,  or  a  few 
generations  gone  by.  In  other  words,  there  is  no  "in 
ferior  race,"  and  the  members  of  a  race  so-called  should 
each  have  the  same  opportunities  of  social  environment 
and  personality  as  those  of  a  more  favored  race.  Those  in 
dividuals  start  practically  to-day,  where  the  members  of 
the  more  favored  race  start  again  as  individuals,  and  if 
they  have  more  drawbacks  to  advance,  they  lie  upon  the 
side  of  their  surrounding  opportunities,  the  opportunities 
in  education,  not  merely  of  school  education  but  of 
that  education  which  comes  from  vocation,  from  work 
responsibilities,  from  industrial  and  social  responsibilities, 
p.nd  so  on.  It  is  therefore  the  responsibility  of  society  as 
a  whole,  conceived  from  a  strictly  scientific  standpoint 
leaving  out  all  sentimental  and  all  moral  considerations — 
it  is  the  business  of  society  as  a  whole  to-day,  to  see  to 
it  that  the  environment  is  provided  which  will  utilize  all 
of  the  individual  capital  that  is  being  born  into  it. 

For  if  these  race  differences  are,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  comparatively  slight,  individual  differences  are  very 
great.  All  points  of  skill-  are  represented  in  every  race, 
from  the  inferior  individual  to  the  superior  individual, 
and  a  society  that  does  not  furnish  the  environment  and 

72 


education  and  the  opportunity  of  all  kinds  which  will 
bring  out  and  make  effective  the  superior  ability  wherever 
it  is  born,  is  not  merely  doing  an  injustice  to  that  particu 
lar  race  and  to  those  particular  individuals,  but  it  is  doing 
an  injustice  to  itself  for  it  is  depriving  itself  of  just  that 
much  of  social  capital. 


72 


Afternoon  Session,  May  31 
Celia  Parker  Woolley,  Chairman 


RACE  RECONCILIATION 

Celia  Parker  Woolley 

Head-worker  Frederick  Douglass   Centre 
Chicago 

The  color  problem  does  not  pertain  to  this  country 
alone,  still  less  to  a  particular  section  of  the  country.  The 
cry  so  often  heard,  "This  is  a  southern  problem,"  "The 
South  alone  understands  the  Negro,"  "Leave  this  matter 
to  us"  is  but  a  repetition  of  the  old  cry  which  we  heard 
before  the  war.  The  same  human  passion  and  sectional 
pride,  the  same  sense  of  special  ownership  and  right  of 
final  appeal  inspires  the  later  as  the  earlier  cry.  The  color 
question  is  a  national  problem,  it  is  a  question  of  repub 
lican  faith  and  well-being.  Its  just  settlement  is  a  mat 
ter  of  national  honor  and  moral  consistency.  If  the 
Negro  is  a  citizen  of  these  United  States  then  his  safety 
and  welfare  should  be  as  much  a  matter  of  patriotic  con 
cern  in  Massachusetts  and  Illinois  as  in  Mississippi  and 
Alabama.  Sectional  feeling  has  no  place  in  the  settle 
ment  of  this  problem  any  more  than  in  questions  of  the 
tariff  and  railway  control. 

We  know  what  the  situation  is  in  India  and  South 
Africa,  in  the  Philippines  and  on  the  California  coast. 
Everywhere  the  dark-skinned  man  is  coming  to  the 

74 


front,  claiming  his  share  in  the  great  comprehensive  boon 
of  civilization,  with  all  it  holds  or  implies  of  material 
benefit,  of  individual  opportunity,  of  intellectual  gain  and 
social  partnership  in  the  common  task  of  building  a  race 
that  is  only  incidentally  white  or  black,  Oriental  or  Occi 
dental,  Teutonic,  Asiatic  or  Negroid,  but  first  and  mainly 
human.  Had  we  a  tithe  of  the  faith  and  courage  which 
our  political  and  religious  professions  are  supposed  to 
bestow  we  should  recognize  in  this  race  or  color  question 
but  one  more  demand  for  those  manhood  rights  which  we 
pretend  to  grant  to  all  alike,  one  more  application,  in  a 
case  of  special  urgency  and  need  which  should  win  in 
stant  response,  of  that  religion  of  reason  and  righteous 
ness  which  we  profess. 

It  is  not  the  Negro  who  is  at  stake  in  this  controversy, 
deep  and  widespread  as  are  his  wrongs.  It  is  the  white 
man,  the  white  man's  civilization,  the  white  man's  repub 
lic.  It  is  not  a  question  of  Negro  supremacy,  but  of  the 
worth  of  those  claims  to  superiority  which  are  so  easily 
alarmed  for  their  own  safety  and  continuance.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  the  black  man's  political  enfranchisement, 
important  and  just  as  this  phase  of  the  question  is.  The 
Negro  can  better  afford  to  lose  his  vote  than  the  white 
man  can  afford  to  deprive  him  of  it.  The  main  question 
underlying  this  and  all  our  social  problems — the  woman 
question,  the  labor  question,  and  a  host  of  minor  prob 
lems — is  one  that  casts  doubt  on  all  our  high  professions 
of  democracy  and  humanity.  What  is  our  republic 
worth  ?  How  long  and  in  what  fashion  will  it  continue 
to  exist?  What  is  our  Christianity  worth?  Whence  do 
we  derive  it,  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  or  from 
those  notions  of  hierarchy  and  social  separation  which 
the  church  as  an  institution  condones  and  fosters? 

The  present  greatest  need  of  the  Negro  in  this  coun 
try  is  the  discriminating  friendship  of  the  white  man. 

75 


The  Negro  suffers  from  a  wholesale  judgment  that  makes 
no  distinctions  or  exceptions.  It  is  only  the  Negro  as 
cook  or  butler,  waiter  or  porter,  whom  the  average  white 
man  knows  and  takes  into  account.  What  a  commen 
tary  on  our  Americanism  is  that  state  of  mind  which  de 
crees  an  entire  class  or  portion  of  the  state  and  com 
munity  to  a  position  of  fixed  inferiority.  The  crux  of 
the  race  question  lies  not  at  all  in  any  feeling  we  may 
have,  favorable  or  unfavorable,  towards  the  colored  cook 
or  butler.  It  is  not  the  class  to  which  these  belong  that 
suffers  most  from  race  prejudice,  but  the  colored  man 
and  woman  who  has  risen  far  above  the  position  of 
menial  service,  necessary  and  honorable  as  this  may  be. 
It  is  the  educated  man  who  through  hardship  and  sacri 
fice,  such  as  in  any  other  case  than  the  American  Negro's 
would  have  won  for  him  friendly  recognition  and  re 
ward,  finds  himself  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  still  subject 
to  the  same  popular  disfavor,  the  same  restrictions  as 
before. 

I  do  not  forget  the  Negro's  share  of  responsibility  for 
the  situation  from  which  he  and  we  suffer.  I  do  not  for 
get  the  mass  of  black  idleness,  ignorance  and  vice  with 
which  the  social  reformer  must  deal.  The  Negro  has 
accomplished  marvels  for  himself  in  many  cases  of  in 
dividual  worth  and  attainment,  signalized  in  names  like 
Washington,  Du  Bois,  Kelly  Miller,  Scarborough,  Keal- 
ing,  the  Grimke  brothers,  but  no  one  knows  so  well  as 
these  how  deep  and  dire,  how  constant  and  pressing  are 
the  needs  in  the  lower  stratum  of  Negro  life,  not  in  the 
South  alone  but  in  the  large  cities  of  the  North. 

We  are  in  less  danger  to-day  from  the  crass  barbari 
ties  of  the  Tillmans,  the  Dixons  and  the  Vardamans  than 
from  the  super-refined  and  highly  intellectualized  utter 
ances  of  certain  distinguished  scholars.  When  Senator 
Tillman  accidentally  runs  across  Booker  Washington  in 

76 


the  White  House  and,  having  never  before  seen  the  dis 
tinguished  man  of  color,  improves  the  occasion  to  look 
him  over  carefully,  arid  says  to  a  waiting  reporter  after 
wards,  "He  has  white  blood  in  him,"  we  only  smile  with 
amusement,  and  comfort  ourselves  with  the  reflection 
that  if  Mr.  Tillman  represents  the  type  that  is  purely 
white  we  have  reason  to  be  thankful  for  the  mixture  of 
blood  currents  in  the  veins  of  his  dark-skinned  com 
patriot. 

But  when  the  venerable  leader  of  our  most  dis 
tinguished  seat  of  learning,  founded  on  Pilgrim  faith 
and  love  of  liberty,  speaks  with  unqualified  condemna 
tion  of  race  unions  of  every  kind  and  degree,  even  be 
tween  separate  families  of  the  same  race  household,  as 
the  English  and  the  Scandinavian,  we  are  in  truth  griev 
ed  and  discouraged.  But  we  are  at  the  same  time  thank 
ful  that  men  like  Frederick  Douglass  and  Booker  Wash 
ington  were  luckily  born  and  given  to  the  world  before 
the  monstrous  evil  of  their  mixed  race  inheritance  was 
discovered. 

If  race  mixture,  particularly  the  mixture  of  black  and 
white,  is  of  such  injurious  effect,  let  us  address  our  argu 
ments  and  appeals,  our  warnings  and  rebukes,  to  the 
guilty  party — the  white  man  of  the  South  and  of  the 
North,  Let  us  attach  the  crime  and  the  crime's  punish 
ment  to  the  sinning  factor,  and  not  darken  innocent  lives 
and  increase  ill-doing,  punishing  the  guiltless  progeny  of 
such  unions.  The  attitude  of  the  average  mind,  learned 
or  unlearned,  on  this  phase  of  the  question  is  as  shame 
less  as  it  is  cruel,  in  its  open  connivance  at  crime  and  so 
cial  misdoing  The  majority  of  people  care  very  little 
about  race  mixture  so  long  as  it  keeps  itself  safe  from 
polite  observation  under  the  dark  cloak  of  illicit  prac 
tices.  It  is  only  when  seeking  to  lift  itself  from  the 
level  of  passion  and  shield  itself  in  honest  marriage, 
graced  and  upheld  by  the  moralities  and  amenities  of  the 

77 


home,  that  the  sense  of  moral  outrage  is  aroused.     A 
strange  anomaly. 

This  Race  Conference  meets  at  a  timely  hour  and  it 
should  be  the  beginning  of  a  permanent  organization,  with 
branches  in  every  large  center,  whose  work  is  to  complete 
the  upbuilding  of  the  republic,  to  make  good  our  pro 
fessions  of  human  brotherhood.  Its  aim  must  be  two 
fold,  to  arouse  the  sense  of  responsibility  among  the 
more  privileged  and  powerful,  where  social  favor  and 
opportunity  are  found  on  the  white  man's  side.  Its 
work  for  the  black  man  is  to  help  and  encourage  in  all 
ways  which  conduce  to  a  high  and  self-respecting,  self- 
sustaining  type  of  manhood. 


POLITICS  AND  INDUSTRY 

W.  E.  B.  DuBois 

Professor  of  Economics  and  History 
Atlanta  University 

Atlanta,  Georgia 

In  discussing  Negro  suffrage  we  must  remember  that 
in  the  three  hundred  years  between  the  settlement  of 
this  country  and  the  present,  there  never  has  been  a  time 
when  it  was  not  legal  for  a  Negro  to  vote  in  some  con 
siderable  part  of  this  land.  From  1700  to  1909  Negroes 
have  probably  cast  their  ballots  at  some  time  in  every 
single  state  of  the  Union,  and  all  the  time  in  some  states 
and  there  has  been  no  period  in  the  history  of  the  land 
when  all  Negroes  were  disfranchised.  The  early  move 
ment  for  disfranchisement  came  in  two  waves:  the  first, 
early  in  the  i8th  century  when  Negro  freedmen  first 
appeared  with  required  qualifications  for  voting.  In  this 
case  Negroes  along  with  Jews  and  Catholics,  were  de 
prived  of  a  vote.  This  initial  movement  was  persisted 
in  only  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  In  all  other 
states,  South  and  North,  it  subsided  and  Negroes  regu 
larly  voted  in  nearly  every  other  state.  Then  came  a 
second  wave  of  disfranchisement  in  the  North,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  i8th  century,  which  had  the  same  ob 
ject  as  the  disfranchising  clauses  in  the  western  states 

79 


early  in  the  next  century :  namely,  to  discourage  and  drive 
out  free  Negroes.  The  third  wave  of  disfranchisement 
came  in  the  South  about  1830  and  marked  the  end  of  the 
abolition  movement  there,  and  the  beginning  of  the  cot 
ton  kingdom.  The  population  of  free  Negroes  began  to 
decrease  and  the  complete  subjection  of  the  black  race 
was  in  sight. 

The  last  wave  of  disfranchisement  began  in  1890  in 
Mississippi  and  now  embraces  Virginia,  North  Carolina 
and  the  Gulf  states  excepting  Florida  and  Texas.  These 
states  have  adopted  four  kinds  of  qualifications:  i.  Edu 
cational  qualifications;  2.  Property  qualifications;  3. 
Qualifications  of  birth ;  4.  Other  miscellaneous  qualifica 
tions  the  effect  of  which  depends  entirely  on  local  elec 
tion  officials.  These  qualifications  have  been  proposed 
with  two  reasons:  (a  )  To  keep  the  Negroes  from  vot 
ing,  (b  )  To  eliminate  the  ignorant  electorate. 

Against  both  these  excuses  there  were  strong  argu 
ments,  but  at  the  time  they  were  gathering  force  and  mo 
mentum  there  came  a  counter  argument  that  practically 
stopped  all  effective  opposition  to  the  disfranchisement 
laws.  This  argument  was  that  the  economic  develop 
ment  of  the  Negro  in  right  lines  demanded  his  exclusion 
from  the  right  of  suffrage  at  least  for  the  present.  This 
proposition  has  been  insisted  on  so  strenuously  and  ad 
vocated  by  Negroes  of  such  prominence  that  it  simply 
took  the  wind  out  of  the  sails  of  those  who  had  proposed 
defending  his  rights,  and  to-day  so  deeply  has  this  idea 
been  driven  that  to  most  readers'  minds  the  Negroes  of 
the  land  are  divided  into  two  great  parties — one  asking 
no  political  rights  but  giving  all  attention  to  economic 
growth  and  the  other  wanting  votes,  higher  education 
and  all  rights.  Moreover,  the  phrase  "take  the  Negro 
out  of  politics"  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  synonymous 
with  industrial  training  and  property  getting  by  the  black 
men. 

80 


I  want  in  this  short  paper  to  show  that,  in  my  opinion, 
both  these  propositions  are  wrong  and  mischievous.  In 
the  first  place  there  is  no  such  division  of  opinion  among 
Negroes  as  is  assumed.  They  are  practically  a  unit  in 
their  demand  for  the  ballot.  The  real  difference  of 
opinion  comes  as  to  how  the  ballot  is  to  be  gained.  One 
set  of  opinions  favors  open,  frank  agitation.  The  other 
favors  influence  and  diplomacy;  and  the  result,  curious 
to  say,  is  that  the  latter  party  has  to-day  an  organized 
political  machine  which  dictates  the  distribution  of  of 
fices  among  black  men  and  sometimes  among  Southern 
whites.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  to-day  the  politi 
cal  power  of  the  black  race  in  America  is  in  certain  re 
stricted  lines  very  considerable.  But  those  of  us  who 
oppose  this  party  hold  that  this  kind  of  political  develop 
ment  by  secrecy  and  machine  methods  is  both  dangerous 
and  unwholesome  and  is  not  leading  toward  real  de 
mocracy.  It  may  and  undoubtedly  does  put  a  large  num 
ber  of  black  men  in  office  and  it  lessens  momentary  fric 
tion,  but  it  is  encouraging  a  coming  economic  conflict 
which  will  threaten  the  South  and  the  Negro  race. 

And  this  brings  me  to  the  second  proposition :  that  po 
litical  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Negro  would  hinder- 
economic  development.  It  is  untrue  that  any  appreci 
able  number  of  black  men  to-day  forget  or  slur  over  the 
tremendous  importance  of  economic,  uplift  among 
Negroes.  Every  intelligent  person  knows  that  the  most 
pressing  problem  of  any  people  suddenly  emancipated 
from  slavery  is  the  problem  of  regular  work  and  accu 
mulated  property.  But  this  problem  of  work  and  prop 
erty  is  no  simple  thing — it  is  complicated  of  many  ele 
ments.  It  is  not  simply  a  matter  of  manual  dexterity 
but  includes  the  spirit  and  the  ideal  back  of  that  dex 
terity. 

We  who  want  to  build  and  build  firmly  the  strong 
foundations  of  a  racial  economy  believe  in  vocational 

81 


training,  but  we  also  believe  that  the  vocation  of  a  man 
in  a  modern  civilized  land  includes  not  only  the  tech 
nique  of  his  actual  work  but  intelligent  comprehension 
of  his  elementary  duties  as  a  father,  citizen,  and  maker 
of  public  opinion,  as  a  possible  voter,  a  conservor  of  the 
public  health,  an  intelligent  follower  of  moral  customs, 
and  one  who  can  at  least  appreciate  if  not  partake  some 
thing  of  the  higher  spiritual  life  of  the  world.  We  do 
•not  pretend  that  all  of  this  can  be  taught  each  individ 
ual  in  school  but  it  can  be  put  into  his  social  environ 
ment,  and  the  more  that  environment  is  curtailed  and 
restricted  the  more  emphatic  is  the  demand  that  some 
part  at  least  of  the  group  shall  be  trained  and  trained 
thoroughly  in  these  higher  matters  of  human  develop 
ment,  if — and  here  is  the  crucial  question — if  they  are 
going  to  be  able  to  share  the  surrounding  civilization. 

This  brings  us  to  the  matter  of  voting.  It  is  possible 
— easily  possible — to  train  a  working  class  who  shall 
have  no  right  to  participate  in  the  government.  Most 
of  the  manual  workers  in  the  history  of  the  world  have 
been  so  trained.  It  is  also  possible,  and  the  modern 
world  thinks  desirable,  to  train  a  working  class  who 
shall  also  have  the  right  to  vote — both  these  things  are 
possible  although  the  overwhelming  trend  of  modern 
thought  is  toward  making  workers  voters.  But  the  one 
thing  that  is  impossible  and  proven  so  again  and  again 
is  to  train  two  sets  of  workers  side  by  side  in  economic 
competition  and  make  one  set  voters  and  deprive  the 
other  set  of  all  participation  in  government.  To  attempt 
this  is  madness.  It  invites  conflict  and  oppression.  A 
nation  cannot  exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  Either 
the  slave  will  rise  through  blood  or  the  freeman  will 
sink. 

So  far  tremendous  effort  in  the  South  has  been  put 
forth  to  keep  down  economic  competition  between  the 
races  by  confining  the  Negroes  by  law  and  custom  to 

82 


certain  vocations.  But,  for  two  reasons,  this  effort  is 
bound  to  break  down :  First  there  is  no  caste  of  ability 
corresponding  with  the  caste  of  color,  and  secondly  be 
cause  if  every  Negro  in  the  South  worked  twenty-four 
hours  a  day  at  the  kinds  of  work  which  are  tacitly  as 
signed  him,  he  could  not  fill  the  demand  for  that  kind  of 
labor.  Economic  competition  is  therefore  inevitable  as 
facts  like  these  show :  In  Alabama  there  are  94,000  Negro 
farm  laborers  and  82,000  whites.  In  Georgia  there  are 
1,100  Negro  barbers  and  275  white  barbers.  In  Florida 
there  are  2,100  Negroes  employed  on  railroads  and  1,500 
whites.  In  Tennessee  there  are  1,000  white  masons  and 
1,200  black  masons.  And  so  on  we  might  go  through 
endless  figures  showing  that  economic  competition  among 
whites  and  blacks  was  not  only  existent  but  growing. 

Moreover  the  schools  that  increase  the  competition  are 
the  industrial  schools  and  this  is  both  natural  and  proper. 
Negro  professional  men,  teachers,  physicians  and  artists 
come  very  -seldom  in  competition  with  the  whites.  But 
farmers,  masons,  painters,  carpenters,  seamstresses  and 
shoe  repairers  work  at  the  same  work  as  whites  and 
largely  under  like  conditions.  This  competition  accen 
tuates  race  prejudice ;  when  a  whole  community,  a  whole 
nation,  pours  contempt  on  a  fellow-man  it  seems  a 
personal  insult  for  that  man  to  work  beside  me  or  at  the 
same  kind  of  work.  Thus  one  of  the  first  results  of  the 
denial  of  civil  rights  is  industrial  jealousy  and  hatred. 
Here  is  a  man  whom  all  my  companions  say  is  unworthy 
and  dangerous  as  a  companion  on  the  street  car  or  steam 
car,  as  a  fellow  listener  at  a  concert,  theatre  or  lecture, 
as  a  table  companion  in  the  same  house  or  restaurant, 
often  as  a  dweller  in  the  same  street  or  same  neighbor 
hood  and  always  as  a  worshipper  in  the  same  church  or 
occupant  of  the  same  graveyard.  If  all  this  is  so — 
and  this  the  Southern  white  working  man  is  industrious 
ly  taught  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave — if  this  is  so  then 

83 


why  shonl  1  I  be  forced  to  work  at  the  same  job  as  this 
man  or  be  engaged  in  similar  kinds  of  work,  or  receive 
the  same  wages?  If  we  cannot  play  together  why  should 
we  work  together? 

Not  only  is  there  this  feeling  but  there  is  also  power 
to  act.  After  the  Atlanta  riot  the  police  and  militia 
searched  the  houses  of  colored  people  and  took  away 
guns  and  ammunition,  while  the  sheriff  almost  gave  away 
guns  to  some  of  the  very  men  who  had  composed  the 
mob.  We  think  this  monstrous  but  it  is  but  a  parallel 
of  the  action  of  the  whole  nation :  they  have  put  the 
ballot  in  the  hands  of  the  white  workingmen  of  the 
South  and  taken  it  away  from  the  black  fellow- workmen. 
The  result  is  that  the  white  workman  can  enforce  his 
feeling  of  prejudice  and  repulsion.  Other  things  being 
equal  the  employer  is  forced  to  discharge  the  black  man 
and  hire  the  white  man — public  opinion  demands  it,  the 
administrators  of  government,  including  police,  magis 
trates,  etc.,  render  it  easier,  since  by  preferring  the  white 
many  intricate  questions  of  social  contact  are  avoided  and 
political  influence  is  vastly  increased. 

Under  such  circumstances  there  is  nothing  for  the 
Negro  to  do  but  to  bribe  the  employer  by  underbidding 
his  white  fellow :  to  work  not  only  for  less  money  wages, 
but  for  longer  hours  and  under  worse  conditions.  No 
sooner  does  he  do  this  than  he  is  mocked  at  as  a  "scab" 
from  Mexico  to  Canada,  and  visited  with  all  the  conse 
quent  penalties.  He  is  said  to  be  dragging  down  labor 
and  he  is  said  to  be  taking  bread  from  others'  mouths 
and  he  may  be,  but  his  excuse  is  tremendous :  he  is 
dragging  others  down  to  keep  himself  from  complete  sub 
mergence  and  he  is  taking  some  of  the  bread  from  others' 
mouths  lest  his  children  starve.  Does  he  want  to  do 
this?  Does  he  like  long  hours?  Ignorant  as  he  is  as  a 
mass,  has  he  not  intelligence  enough  to  perceive  the  value 
of  the  labor  unions  and  the  meaning  of  the  labor  move- 

84 


ment  ?  No,  it  is  not  because  the  black  man  is  a  fool  but 
because  he  is  a  victim  that  he  drags  labor  clown. 

Faced  by  this  situation  the  next  step  of  the  white  work 
men  is  to  enforce  by  law  an  1  administration  that  which 
they  cannot  gain  by  competition.  In  the  past  these  laws 
have  been  laws  to  separate  an  1  humiliate  the  blacks,  but 
more  aggressive  laws  are  demanded  to-:!ay  and  will  be  in 
the  future.  The  Alabama  child  labor  law  excepts  from 
its  operation  children  in  domestic  service  and  in  agricul 
ture — i.  e.,  Negro  children.  They  may  grow  up  in  ab 
solute  ignorance  so  far  as  the  law  is  concerned.  The 
Alabama  law  makes  the  breaking  of  a  contract  to  work 

o 

by  a  farm  laborer  a  felony  punishable  by  a  penitentiary 
sentence.  Such  a  breaking  of  law  in  other  industries  is 
a  misdemeanor  punishable  by  a  fine.  Certain  oppres 
sive  labor  regulations  in  many  southern  states  are  only 
applicable  to  such  counties  as  vote  their  enforcement. 
Counties  with  white  workmen  vote  it  down.  Counties 
with  disfranchised  black  workmen  vote  it  in.  In  the 
state  civil  service  no  Negro  can  be  employed  at  any  job 
which  any  white  man  wants,  for  obvious  reasons.  More 
than  that  no  white  man  whose  business  depends  on  pub 
lic  approbation,  or  political  concession  can  dare  to  hire 
Negroes  or  if  he  hires  them  promote  them  as  they  may 
deserve.  He  must  often  be  content  with  a  distinctly  in 
ferior  grade  of  white  help. 

Judges  and  juries  in  the  South  are  at  the  absolute 
mercy  of  the  white  voters.  Few  ordinary  judges  would 
dare  oppose  the  momentary  whim  of  the  white  mob  and 
practically  only  now  and  then  will  a  jury  convict  a  white 
man  for  aggression  on  a  Negro.  This  is  true  not  only 
in  criminal  but  also  in  civil  suits,  so  much  so  that  it  is  a 
widespread  custom  among  Negroes  of  property  never  to 
take  a  civil  suit  to  court  but  to  let  the  white  complainant 
settle  it.  In  all  public  benefits  like  schools  and  parks 
and  gatherings  and  institutions,  Negroes  are  regularly 

85 


taxed  for  what  they  cannot  enjoy.      I  am  taxed  for  the 
Carnegie  Public  Library  of  Atlanta  where  I  cannot  en 
ter  to  draw  my  own  books.      The  Negroes  of  Memphis 
are  taxed  for  public  parks  where  they  cannot  sit  down. 

The  public  schools  of  the  South  on  account  of  virulent 
opposition  of  the  white  working  classes  are  (save  in  a 
few  cities  and  a  few  exceptional  counties),  worse  off  than 
they  were  twenty  years  ago — with  poorer  teachers,  lower 
salaries  and  more  negligent  supervisors.  This  statement 
covers  nine-tenths  of  the  public  Negro  schools  of  the 
South. 

Even  in  serving  his  own  people  and  organizing 
his  own  business  the  Negro  is  at  the  absolute  mercy  of 
the  white  voters.  It  is  often  said  grandiloquently:  let 
the  Negroes  organize  their  own  theatres,  transport  their 
own  passengers,  organize  their  own  industrial  companies ; 
but  such  kinds  of  business  are  almost  absolutely  depend 
ent  on  public  license  and  taxation  requirements.  A  thea 
tre  built  and  equipped  could  by  a  single  vote  be  refused 
a  license,  a  transportation  company  could  get  no  fran 
chise,  and  an  industrial  enterprise  could  be  taxed  out  of 
existence.  This  is  not  always  done,  but  it  is  done  just 
as  soon  as  any  white  man  or  group  of  white  men  begin 
to  feel  the  competition.  Then  the  voters  proceed  to 
put  the  industrial  screws  on  the  disfranchised.  Witness 
the  strike  of  the  white  locomotive  firemen  in  Georgia  to 
day.  Negro  firemen  get  from  fifty  cents  to  one  dol 
lar  a  day  less  than  the  white  firemen,  have  to  do  menial 
work  and  cannot  become  engineers.  They  can,  how 
ever,  by  good  service  and  behavior  be  promoted  to  the 
best  runs  by  the  rule  of  seniority.  Even  this  the  white 
firemen  now  object  to  and  say  in  a  manifesto:  the 
"white  people  of  this  state  refuse  to  accept  Negro  equal 
ity.  This  is  worse  than  that."  The  other  day  the  white 
automobile  drivers  of  Atlanta  made  a  frantic  appeal  in 
the  papers  for  persons  to  stop  hiring  black  drivers.  The 

86 


black  drivers  replied,  "We  have  had  fewer  accidents  than 
you  and  get  less  wages,"  but  the  whites  simply  said, 
"This  ought  to  be  a  white  man's  job." 

This  sort  of  thing  is  destined  to  grow  and  develop. 
The  fear  of  Negro  competition  in  all  lines  is  increasing 
in  the  South.  The  demand  of  to-morrow  is  going  to  be 
increasingly  not  to  protect  white  people  from  ignorance 
and  degradation,  but  from  knowledge  and  efficiency— 
that  is,  to  so  arrange  the  matter  by  law  and  custom  as 
to  make  it  possible  for  the  inefficient  and  lazy  white 
workman  to  be  able  to  crush  and  keep  down  his  black 
competitor  at  all  hazards,  and  so  that  no  black  man  shall 
be  allowed  to  do  his  best  if  his  success  lifts  him  to  any 
degree  out  of  the  place  in  which  millions  of  Americans 
are  being  taught  he  ought  to  stay. 

This  is  bad  enough  but  this  is  not  all.  The  voteless 
Negro  is  a  provocation,  an  invitation  to  oppression,  a 
plaything  for  mobs  and  a  bonanza  for  demagogues.  They 
serve  always  to  distract  attention  from  real  issues  and 
to  ride  fools  and  rascals  into  political  power.  The 
political  campaign  in  Georgia  before  the  last  was  avowed 
ly  and  openly  a  campaign  not  against  Negro  crime  and  ig 
norance  but  against  Negro  intelligence  and  property 
owning  and  industrial  competition  as  shown  by  an  83% 
increase  in  their  property  in  ten  years.  It  swept  the 
state  and  if  it  had  not  culminated  in  riot  and  bloodshed 
and  thus  scared  capital  it  would  still  be  triumphant.  As 
it  is  the  end  is  not  yet.  The  political  power  of  a  mass 
of  active  working  people  thus  without  votes  is  greater 
for  harm,  manipulation  and  riot  than  the  power  of  the 
same  people  with  votes  could  possibly  be,  with  the  addi 
tional  fact  that  voters  would  learn  to  vote  intelligently 
by  voting.  Fourteen  years  ago  Mississippi  began  dis 
franchising  Negroes.  You  were  promised  that  the  re 
sult  would  be  to  settle  the  Negro  problem.  Is  it  settled? 
No,  and  it  never  will  be  until  you  give  black  men  the 

,87 


power  to  be  men,  until  you  give  them  the  power  to 
defend  that  manhood.  When  the  Negro  casts  a  free  and 
intelligent  vote  in  the  South  then  and  not  until  then  will 
the  Negro  problem  be  settled. 


RACE  PREJUDICE  AS    VIEWED  FROM 
AN   ECONOMIC  STANDPOINT 

William  L.  Bulkley 

Principal    in  the  Public   Schools 
New   York 

I  wish  to  preface  my  argument  with  the  following  in 
dictment:  Race-prejudice  in  the  South 

( i )  Does  not  recognize  the  value  of  an  intelligent,  con 
tented  laboring  class.  (2)  Closes  the  door  to  occupa 
tions  requiring  skill  and  responsibility.  (3)  Drives  out 
of  the  South,  by  humiliating  and  oppressive  laws  and 
practices,  many  of  its  most  desirable  citizens.  (4) 
Forces  across  the  line  thousands  of  mixed  bloods.  (5) 
Forces  into  the  ranks  of  unskilled  labor  in  the  North 
and  West  many  who  are  skilled. 

Considering  the  race  question  from  a  purely  economic 
standpoint,  no  part  of  this  country,  North,  South,  East 
or  West,  ought  to  continue  the  unjust  industrial  restric 
tions  upon  us  as  a  people.  In  the  North  these  restric 
tions  act  as  an  injustice  to  the  weaker  race,  but  do  not 
cause  any  perceptible  economic  loss  to  the  community. 
In  the  South,  on  the  contrary,  any  limitation  put  upon 
the  development  of  the  Negro  in  any  line  of  manual 
labor  or  skill  seriously  affects  its  economic  development. 
Already  is  this  loss  to  its  industrial  life  evident  in  the 
desperate  efforts  exerted  to  induce  European  immigra 
tion.  But  the  suggestion  that  this  need  of  more  and  bet 
ter  labor  is  caused  by  her  sins  of  omission  or  commis- 

89 


sion  would  doubtless  meet  from  the  South  the  most  fo^ 
bust  denials.  And  yet,  any  thoughtful  student  of  econ 
omics  would  readily  see  that  this  lack  of  reliable  labor 
is  at  least  in  part,  due  to  the  absence  of  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  South  to  enlighten,  to  encourage  and  to  ren 
der  contented  its  laboring  classes.  With  the  exception 
of  a  makeshift  of  a  school  lasting  for  a  few  weeks  each 
year,  the  South  offers  its  farming  masses  absolutely  no 
other  inducement  to  a  larger  and  better  life.  Little  won 
der  is  it  that  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres 
cultivated  in  the  same  sort  of  indifferent  way  year  after 
year. 

And  again,  from  the  ranks  of  skilled  labor,  race  op 
pression  is  driving  out  of  the  South  a  host  of  the  best 
Negroes,  best  in  culture  of  mind,  best  in  sturdiness  of 
character,  best  in  skill  of  hand.  A  census  of  the  Negroes 
in  any  city  in  the  North  would  show  that  the  majority 
of  the  most  progressive  of  them,  whether  in  the  pro 
fessions,  in  business,  or  in  the  trades,  were  more  or  less 
recent  arrivals  from  the  South.  Can  the  South  afford  to 
lose  this  class?  Can  any  country  afford  to  drive  out 
its  best?  Does  not  the  South  need  the  influence  of  such 
men  and  women  over  the  ignorant,  the  idle,  or  the  de 
praved  of  our  race  ?  Is  it  wise  to  make  living  conditions 
so  unbearable  that  only  the  most  ignorant  or  the  most 
unworthy  are  contented  to  remain  and  endure  with  the 
characteristic  grin  of  a  sycophant? 

The  desirable,  the  progressive,  the  intelligent  Negroes 
who  remain  South  are  there  for  one  of  two  reasons :  be 
cause  they  can't  get  away ;  or  because  they  feel  they 
ought  to  stay  and  suffer  with  their  own.  And  all  these 
heave  from  the  depths  of  their  hearts  the  despairing  cry, 
"How  long,  O  Lord,  how  long?" 

If  only  a  small  part  of  the  time  that  is  devoted  to 
schemes  to  restrict,  to  humiliate,  and  to  oppress  the  Ne 
groes  were  spent  in  an  effort  to  study  means  by  which 

90 


they  might  be  made  more  intelligent,  mort  thrifty  as 
laborers,  more  skillful  as  artisans,  more  contented  as 
citizens,  there  are  few  spots  on  the  globe  that  would  show 
so  great  an  industrial  awakening  during  the  twentieth 
century. 

Wise  legislators  in  any  community  would  endeavor  to 
enact  such  laws  or  establish  such  customs  as  would  de 
velop  a  contented  middle  and  a  hopeful  laboring  class. 
Indeed,  the  North  and  West,  with  their  attractive  wages, 
with  their  excellent  schools,  libraries,  reading-rooms, 
clubs,  and  settlement  houses,  with  a  cordial  welcome  to 
full  American  citizenship,  have  beckoned  invitingly  the 
millions  of  Europeans  that  make  the  wealth  of  these 
great  sections  of  our  nation.  During  these  same  years 
another  part  of  our  land  has  spent  its  time  in  devising 
plans  to  keep  down  in  dependence  and  hopelessness  its 
millions  of  laborers,  millions  native  to  the  soil,  ready  and 
willing  to  do  whatever  they  are  able  for  the  development 
of  the  only  land  they  know  and  the  only  land  they  care  to 
know. 

In  the  second  place,  there  is  a  decided  economic  loss 
in  keeping  within  the  bounds  of  unskilled  labor  those 
who  might  do  credit  in  the  ranks  of  skilled  labor;  and 
yet  that  is  what  the  South  or  any  part  of  the  country  does 
when  it  inhibits  and  circumscribes  the  vocations  of  a 
part  of  its  people.  There  are  certain  classes  of  skilled 
labor  which  it  is  not  permitted  a  Negro  to  enter.  In  fact, 
my  observation  convinces  me  that  even  certain  vocations 
which  belonged  almost  exclusively  to  the  Negroes  ever 
since  the  days  of  slavery  are  fast  being-  closed  against  - 
them.  The  present  railroad  strike  in  Georgia  illustrates 
this  point.  Parenthetically  I  may  say  that  due  credit 
should  be  given  to  the  papers,  North  and  Sotfth,  that 
have  rung  out  with  no  uncertain  sound  about  this  strike ; 
and  yet  it  would  seem  impossible  to  counteract  in  one  day 
in  the  year  all  the  evil  that  these  same  papers  will  do  us  in 


the  other  364  days  in  written  words  or  insinuations 
against  us  as  a  people.  And  so  down  the  line  there  seems 
to  be  a  purpose  to  restrict  the  Negroes  within  the  limits  of 
unskilled  labor,  to  reduce  them  to  a  state  which,  while  not 
nineteenth  century  slavery  may  be  twentieth  century 
peonage. 

Thirdly,  as  was  suggested  previously,  the  humiliating 
laws  and  practices  are  forcing  out  of  the  South  thou 
sands  of  its  best  Negroes,  Negroes  who  love  their  birth 
place,  love  its  balmy  air,  its  sunny  skies,  its  fertile 
fields,  its  luxuriant  forests,  the  comradeship  of  their  kith 
and  kin.  To  us  there  never  cease  to  come  times  of  yearn 
ing  to  revisit  the  old  spots  of  our  childhood  and  of  our 
youth,  to  meet  our  brethren,  to  hear  their  tale  of  woe, 
to  weep  with  them  over  their  distresses,  to  rejoice  with 
them  in  their  successes,  to  share  with  them  the  soul-re 
freshings  that  only  a  Negro  revival  can  give.  How  near 
they  seem  to  get  to  the  great  loving  heart  of  God  in  their 
deep,  religious  fervor,  and  childlike  trustfulness!  But 
when  our  yearning  seizes  us,  there  appears  before  us  the 
spectral  hand  of  blighting  prejudice,  inviting  uninvit- 
ingly. 

I  never  cease  to  wonder  whether  far-sighted  white 
men  of  the  South  see  the  loss  in  letting  so  many  of  their 
best  Negroes  leave ;  whether  they  ever  think  that  it  would 
be  wise  to  abate  their  prejudices  to  the  extent  of  consult 
ing  with  us  for  some  ground  of  mutual  understanding 
and  sympathy.  It  is  too  high  a  compliment  to  be  credi 
ble  that  we  have  developed  such  a  large  class  of  desir 
ables  that  the  thousands  who  leave  are  easily  spared.  If 
a  community  seeks  to  acquire  and  to  retain  the  largest 
possible  number  of  upright,  cultured,  property-holding, 
progressive  people,  it  should  inquire  into  the  causes  that 
drive  out  and  keep  out  this  very  class.  But  has  there 
been  a  single  act  of  a  southern  Legislature  in  35  years 
aimed  to  render  more  comfortable  the  lot  of  that  class 

92 


of  Negroes  who,  out  of  great  tribulation,  have  struggled 
up  and  are  still  struggling  up,  and  rearing  their  families 
into  clean  and  commendable  manhood  and  womanhood  ? 

We  are  needed  in  the  South,  needed  to  help  our 
brethren  up,  needed  to  give  our  white  neighbors  the  as 
surance  of  our  confidence,  needed  to  join  with  all  honest 
and  earnest  men  for  the  regeneration  of  the  land  of  our 
birth,  scarred  by  slavery,  blighted  by  the  ravages  of  war, 
crippled  by  years  of  post-bellum  misrule,  hampered  by 
narrow,  near-sighted,  selfish  prejudice.  There  is  not 
one  of  us  who  would  not  gladly  go  back  home  if  we  did 
not  know  that  every  right  dear  to  any  full  man  has  been 
ruthlessly  torn  from  our  grasp.  Gladly  would  we  rush  to 
the  embrace  of  our  loved  ones  in  bonds,  but  we  cannot, 
we  cannot. 

In  the  fourth  place,  we  do  not  get  the  full  economic 
credit  due  to  us,  because  of  the  loss  of  a  host  of  mixed- 
bloods  who  cross  the  line.  Even  in  the  South  this  cross 
ing  occasionally  happens.  Sometimes  the  white  know  it 
and  wink  at  it,  as  was  evidenced  some  time  ago  in  the 
South  Carolina  State  Constitutional  Convention  in  a 
speech  by  Mr.  Tillman,  brother  of  Senator  Tillman. 
There  is  scarcely  a  colored  man  who  could  not  tell  of 
some  friend  or  relative  who  has  crossed  the  line  North 
or  South,  now  prominent  in  business,  professors  in  insti 
tutions  of  learning,  married  into  good  society,  and  rear 
ing  families  that  have  no  dreams  of  the  depths  that  their 
parent  has  escaped.  We  could  tell  the  story,  if  we  would 
—but  who  would  be  the  knave  to  disturb  their  peace? 

Lastly,  intolerance  drives  the  ambitious,  competent,  skill 
ed  laborer  out  of  the  South,  but  in  coming  into  the  North, 
he  meets  an  industrial  competition  which  he  had  not  fig 
ured  on.  Here  he  finds  the  field  of  skilled  labor  pre 
empted  by  the  native  white  man  and  the  foreigner.  They 
guard  jealously  all  approaches  to  it,  whether  threatened 
by  Negro  or  Japanese  or  Chinaman,  or  what  not.  The 

93 


new  arrival  attributes  to  prejudice  the  difficulties  he  en 
counters.  I  can  hardly  believe  that  it  is  prejudice  that 
keeps  Negroes  out  of  the  industrial  fields  in  the  North 
as  much  as  other  reasons.  Only  to-day  I  was  talking 
with  a  young  man,  a  graduate  of  Hampton,  who  has 
worked  his  way  up  to  a  successful  upholstery  business  in 
this  city.  He  said,  "I  had  a  hard  time  at  first  because 
people  didn't  believe  a  colored  man  could  do  upholstery 
work  satisfactorily.  Now  that  I  have  made  good,  I  get 
plenty  of  work."  I  could  weary  you  with  numerous  in 
stances  of  this  kind. 

There  are,  as  I  see  it,  three  chief  reasons  why  we  are 
not  working  easily  into  the  skilled  trades  in  the  North: 
(i)  Skepticism  as  to  our  ability;  (2)  The  already  crowd 
ed  labor  market,  that  looks  with  disfavor  upon  inroads 
from  any  source;  (3)  A  feeling,  which  I  think  is  human, 
viz.,  the  pleasure  found  in  knocking  the  weaker  fellow. 
Joseph  Bernstein  and  Max  Robinsky  would  not  likely 
have  any  feeling  against  Jim  Smith  as  a  man ;  but  as 
Joseph  and  Max  have  just  come  from  a  kicking  them 
selves  there  may  be  some  comfort  in  finding  the  chance 
to  try  the  dose  on  another  fellow.  So  Pat  O'Flannagan 
does  not  have  the  least  thing  in  the  world  against  Jim 
from  Dixie,  but  it  didn't  take  Pat  long  after  passing 
the  Statue  of  Liberty  to  learn  that  it  is  popular  to  give 
Jim  a  whack.  He  would  be  a  little  more  than  human  if 
he  did  not  want  to  try  on  Jim  what  his  English  lord  had 
so  long  tried  on  him.  These  people  who  have  escaped 
the  persecutions  and  the  class-proscriptions  of  Europe 
feel  a  newly  awakened  consciousness  that  they  are  not 
after  all  at  the  bottom  of  the  heap.  They  would  strike 
in  like  manner  against  any  other  individual,  or  religion, 
or  language,  or  race,  provided  that  they  were  prompted 
to  it  by  prevailing  custom. 

Labor  discriminations  in  the  North  are  not  deep-seated 
and  inerradicable.  It  is  impossible  to  educate  the  youth 

94 


of  a  land  in  the  same  schools,  in  the  same  classes,  side 
by  side  in  their  recitations,  united  in  their  sports,  shout 
ing  the  same  yell,  feeling  the  same  thrill  at  the  success 
of  their  colleagues,  whether  white  or  yellow  or  brown  or 
black,  without  at  the  same  time  developing  a  better  un 
derstanding  with  each  other,  a  kindlier  feeling  toward 
each  other.  The  thing  we  call  race  prejudice  in  the 
North  differs  from  race  prejudice  in  the  South  as  a  skin- 
affection  differs  from  scrofula.  The  latter  is  organic,  in 
the  very  blood,  drawn  in  with  the  mother's  milk,  and  fed 
by  the  virus  of  public  sentiment.  The  other  is  superfi 
cial,  readily  subject  to  treatment,  and  not  difficult  to  cure. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  outcome  of  the  people  who 
leave  the  South,  there  is  one  thing  certain — the  South 
is  losing  a  class  of  citizens  which  it  should  wish  to  re 
tain.  Men  and  women  of  culture  and  of  character  are 
needed  in  every  community,  and  in  no  place  more  than 
in  the  South;  but  when  the  Southern  whites,  by  every 
conceivable  means,  humiliate,  proscribe,  and  hamper  the 
best  of  us,  there  should  be  no  surprise  if  we  seek  more 
congenial  climes,  where  we  can  at  least  protect  our  wives 
and  daughters  from  the  contumely  that  the  lowest  white 
man  can  heap  upon  them  with  absolute  impunity. 

Whither  are  we  tending?  Are  we  drifting  with  a  sort 
of  fatalistic  indifference?  Or  is  there  a  purpose  behind 
all  these  restrictions,  all  these  proscriptions? 

If  there  be  a  purpose  what  can  it  be?  Is  the  purpose 
to  go  back  to  slavery  ?  I  had  hoped  that  it  had  been  set 
tled,  forever  settled,  that  this  country  cannot  exist  part 
slave  and  part  free.  If  there  be  no  purpose  behind  it  all, 
there  is  lacking  that  far-seeing  statesmanship  which  every 
government  should  have.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
the  problem  of  ten  million  citizen-aliens  does  not  merit 
the  wisest  statesmanship.  We  are  forty-six  years  from 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  yet  to-day  so  wide 
spread  is  this  race-oppression  that  a  gathering  of  this 

95 


kind  is  imperative.  At  the  same  rate  of  retrogression,  in 
forty-six  more  years  the  then  twenty  millions  of  colored 
people  will  be  veritable  serfs. 

What  would  that  mean  to  the  country  at  large?  A  tu 
berculous  bacillus  from  a  black  man's  lung  is  as  conta 
gious  as  a  bacillus  from  a  white  man's  lung.  Black  men 
of  vicious  lives  cannot  fail  to  affect  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree  the  communities  where  they  live.  You  cannot  cir 
cumscribe  vice ;  it  is  contagious.  Leave  these  millions 
of  Negroes  to  battle  alone  with  this  terrible  weight  with 
which  they  are  now  burdened  and  they  would  prove 
themselves  little  better  than  mortals  if  they  did  not  follow 
the  lines  of  least  resistance  and  sink  lower  and  lower 
into  indolence,  vagrancy  and  criminality.  You  may  de 
prive  a  man  of  the  right  to  vote,  but  you  cannot  deprive 
him  of  the  right  to  steal. 

Give  them  encouragement.  Offer  them  incentives  for 
intelligence,  for  skill,  for  sobriety,  for  character.  Let 
them  feel  that  as  they  push  themselves  out  of  the  quag 
mire,  they  will  be  recognized  on  their  merits.  Reward 
industry.  Recognize  proved  ability.  But,  if  for  the 
sake  of  argument,  it  be  granted  that  they  are  all  that 
their  most  virulent  enemies  charge  them  with  being,  so 
much  greater  is  the  need  of  sparing  no  efforts  for  their 
uplift,  not  so  much  for  their  sakes  as  for  your  sakes.. 
If  it  were  only  one  man  or  a  hundred  men,  there  might 
be  some  hope  of  their  dying  or  some  way  might  be  sug 
gested  to  get  rid  of  them ;  but  here  is  a  race  of  10,000,- 
ooo,  as  many  people  as  are  in  all  British  America  and  all 
Central  America;  they  are  not  dying  out;  they  are  not 
going  to  die  out.  As  I  see  it  there  are  only  four  things 
possible:  (i)  Expatriate  them;  (2)  Annihilate  them: 
(3)  Degrade  them;  (4)  Elevate  them.  If  they  remain 
here  and  are  allowed  no  incentives  to  pull  upward,  it 
must  follow  as  the  night  the  day,  they  will  surely  run 
downward. 

96 


To  work  in  any  way  that  one  has  the  ability  should 
be  the  inalienable  right  of  every  American  citizen.  A 
clean,  attractive,  honest-looking  young  man  came  to  my 
office  last  week  to  see  if  I  "could  help  him.  He  stated 
that  he  is  a  Junior  in  the  pharmaceutical  course  at  Colum 
bia.  He  desires  to  spend  his  vacation  in  a  wholesale  drug 
concern  for  the  sake  of  needed  information  and  exper 
ience.  He  had  written  to  several  drug  establishments 
in  this  city.  He  received  replies  to  call,  intimating  that 
there  were  opportunities  for  work.  He  stated  that  he 
had  just  come  from  a  useless  round  of  visits  to  the  stores, 
for  the  proprietors  had  suddenly  changed  their  minds  on 
seeing 'him.  Now,  that  young  man  is  good  enough  to 
sit  by  the  side  of  and  work  with  the  best  in  Columbia 
University;  is  it  not  presumable  that  he  is  good  enough 
to  work  out  in  the  world  by  the  side  of  those  who  are 
no  better  than  his  mates  in  college? 

We  do  not  ask  for  charity;  all  we  ask  is  opportunity. 
We  do  not  beg  for  alms ;  we  beg  only  for  a  chance.  The 
right  to  work ;  opportunity  to  work ;  encouragement  to 
work ;  reward  for  work ;  this  is  all  we  ask ;  less  than 
this  should  not  be  given. 


97 


THE  NEGRO  AND  THE  SOUTH 

William  English  Walling 

Secretary  of  the  Committee 

The  chief  object  of  any  movement  in  behalf  of  the 
American  Negro  must  be  to  enlighten  the  public  opinion 
of  the  whole  country.  In  no  section  is  it  in  a  satis 
factory  state.  Yet  in  the  East,  West,  and  North,  the 
Negro  has  friends  in  every  social  class,  sometimes  many, 
sometimes  few,  who  are  ready  to  treat  him  in  every  way 
as  on  his  individual  merits.  As  a  southerner  born,  and 
one  familiar  with  the  southern  view  through  family 
and  friends,  from  infancy,  I  am  peculiarly  conscious 
that  it  is  in  the  South  alone  that  the  Negro  seems  to 
find  no  true  brotherly  feeling  in  any  element  of  the 
white  community.  It  is  my  chief  purpose  to  point  out 
that  the  situation  is  not  so  bad  as  it  appears,  but  the 
fact  that  the  sentiment  friendly  to  the  Negro  in  the 
South  receives  at  the  present  moment  no  effective  pub 
lic  expression.  That  it  is  disorganized,  that  it  is  only  lo 
cally  known  in  the  South  and  never  reaches  the  North 
is  only  too  obvious.  I  shall  also  admit  that  this  new 
friendliness  is  only  slightly  developed  and  only  half- 
conscious,  that  it  must  oppose  at  every  point  the  dominant 
note  of  prejudice  and  oppression  that  pervades  and 
dominates  the  press,  the  politics,  the  pulpit,  and  even 
the  universities  of  that  section.  But  whether  developed 
or  not,  whether  discouraging  or  the  reverse,  whether 
we  like  it  or  not,  it  is  southern  opinion  that  must  ulti 
mately  play  the  chief  part  in  the  settlement  of  this 
question. 

98 


Now  what  ivS  the  present  state  of  opinion  in  the  south 
ern  states?  To  give  an  intelligent  answer  we  must 
adopt  a  new  method,  we  must  speak  separately  of  the 
various  .elements  of  the  community.  Doubtless  there 
seems  to  be  a  solid  South  and  there  is  some  truth  in 
the  expression,  perhaps  more  than  there  would  have 
been  a  generation  or  two  or  three  generations  ago.  Yet 
chemical  substances  and  biological  organisms  were  nev 
er  understood  until  they  were  pulled  to  pieces,  analyzed 
in  every  conceivable  manner,  and  we  shall  not  know 
anything  whatever  of  southern  'opinion  as  long  as  we 
think  of  a  solid  South.  The  South  never  was  solid. 
Economic  conditions  may  have  produced  a  tendency 
towards  solidification  for  the  first  half  of  the  last  cen 
tury  and  political  sectionalism  both  North  and  South 
may  have  strengthened  this  tendency  for  another  fifty 
years,  but  the  differences  within  the  South  on  this  ques 
tion  during  all  this  period  remained,  and  still  remain, 
infinitely  more  important  and  instructive  than  the  points 
on  which  unity  seemed  to  prevail.  Within  the  last  two 
decades,  moreover,  political  and  economic  sectionalism 
are  both  decreasing,  the  same  economic  questions  are 
dividing  the  South  as  divide  the  rest  of  the  country, 
each  of  the  new  economic  or  political  groups  that  results 
takes  a  new  attitude  on  the  Negro  problem. 

Hitherto  the  Negroes  themselves  and  their  northern 
friends  have  placed  altogether  too  much  hope  in  the 
more  cultivated  and  benevolent  of  the  southern  aristoc 
racy,  the  descendants  largely  of  the  wealthier  and  more 
humane  slave  owners  of  the  past  generation.  But  even 
when  such  individuals  succeed  in  freeing  themselves  en 
tirely  from  local  tradition  and  interests,  which  happens 
but  rarely,  even  when  they  have  the  tremendous  courage 
to  speak  out  against  the  overwhelming  power  of  the 
firmly  seated  oligarchies  that  govern  the  southern  states, 
they  represent  only  isolated  individual  opinions.  In- 

99 


deed,  all  the  humanitarian  opinion  of  the  country  com 
bined  with  that  of  science  could  have  little  effect. 

We  have  been  taunted  by  the  fact  that  we  have  only 
three  white  southerners  on  our  programme.  Such  crit 
icism  ignores  the  fact  that  none  can  speak  with  such 
knowledge  and  even  breadth  on  the  condition  of  the 
Negroes  as  some  of  the  enlightened  colored  southerners 
we  have  with  us.  But  it  ignores  further  the  very  crux 
of  the  whole  problem,  that  liberal  southerners  have  giv 
en  up  in  despair  before  the  wave  of  aggressive  and  ugly 
reaction  that  rules  the  section. 

A  gentleman  from  the  far  South  who  has  written  that 
the  racial  discrimination  had  no  other  basis  than  the  de 
sire  to  establish  by  law  and  custom  a  legally  inferior 
caste  in  the  place  of  slavery  has  written  us  the  reasons 
why  he  does  not  consider  it  admissible  for  him  to  ad 
dress  this  conference.  Referring  to  his  published  writ 
ing  he  says:  "I  wrote  for  the  country  at  large  to  repel 
false  statements  which  are  constantly  being  made  concern 
ing  our  Negro  population,  and  which,  I  felt,  were  doing 
much  to  make  the  Negro  obnoxious  to  those  who  would 
naturally  be  his  friends."  But  he  refuses  to  repeat  this 
denunciation  of  false  statements  because  he  does  not 
feel  that  most  southerners  are  open  to  the  truth.  He 
writes  further,  "Should  I  give  utterance  anywhere  in 
the  North  to  what  I  think  about  the  race  question,  I 
feel  that  I  should  convince  nobody  in  the  South  that  I 
was  right."  He  then  shows  the  hopeless  isolation  even 
of  moderate  liberals  like  himself  in  the  South  in  the 
statement  "there  are  doubtless  other  southern  men  who 
think  as  you  and  I  do,  but  they  are  certainly  not  many 
enough  to  escape  the  epithets,  crank  and  fanatic." 

What  could  be  more  ill-founded  and  misleading  then 
than  the  view  so  widely  held  in  the  North  and  just  ex 
pressed  by  President  Taft  at  Howard  University,  that 
"the  white  men  of  progress  were  coming  to  appreciate 

100 


the  advantage  of  having  a  class  like  the  colored  men 
that  they  have  there."  The  slave-owners  and  all  their 
successors  who  have  secured  any  advantage  from  hav 
ing  the  Negroes  there  have  always  appreciated  their 
presence — only  the  poorer  whites  have  complained  of 
the  competition  of  their  cheap  labor  and  wished  them 
in  Liberia.  It  is  made  a  crime  in  some  southern  states 
to  entice  the  colored  laborer  out  of  the  state  even  for 
his  benefit.  The  Negro  is  recognized  as  highly  valuable, 
but  not  as  having  any  rights. 

In  other  words,  there  are  two  Souths,  those  who  em 
ploy  Negro  labor  and  those  who  compete  with  it.  Those 
who  employ  want  their  labor  to  be  cheap  and  skilled. 
To  keep  it  cheap,  they  hold  all  the  positions  of  power  in 
the  community  and  in  agricultural  sections  make  strik 
ing  a  crime,  while  they  discourage  the  higher  education 
necessary  to  produce  Negro  leaders  and  drive  the  most 
courageous  and  intelligent  to  the  North.  To  make  it 
skilled  they  encourage  industrial  education.  Those  who 
compete  with  Negro  labor  cannot  wish  it  to  be  cheap. 
One  recourse  is  to  keep  it  unskilled,  to  exclude  it  from 
the  unions,  but  another  way  is  to  make  common  cause 
in  the  organized  fight  for  higher  wages.  Both  courses 
are  being  followed,  and  it  is  right  here  where  the  in 
fluence  of  a  powerful  public  sentiment  could  best  aid 
the  Negroes.  The  white  workingmen  must  be  persuaded 
that  their  only  permanent  welfare  is  co-operation  with 
their  colored  fellow-workers  and  that  opposition  must 
inevitably  lead  to  total  demoralization  of  all  organized 
effort  of  both  classes. 

What  is  still  more  interesting  is  that  these  two  econ 
omic  Souths  coincide  to  a  very  large  extent  with  the 
two  geographical  Souths.  In  the  Black  Belt  in  the  far 
southern  states,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis 
sissippi,  Louisiana  and  Florida,  the  employers,  especially 
of  the  large  plantations,  have  no  choice  but  to  employ 

101 


Negro  labor.  They  are  therefore  influenced  exclusive 
ly  by  the  desire  for  labor  both  cheap  and  as  skilled  as 
it  may  be  without  becoming  discontented.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  employers  and  manufacturers  of  North  Caro 
lina,  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Ten 
nessee  and  Missouri  employ  more  white  than  colored 
labor  and  recognize  that  it  is  impossible  to  legislate 
against  white  labor,  and,  therefore,  very  difficult  to  legis 
late  against  the  colored.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  in  these 
border  states  exclusively  where  the  competition  between 
colored  and  white  labor  assumes  very  important  pro 
portions.  In  those  counties  where  the  prejudice  is  most 
strong  as  well  as  in  the  corresponding  counties  north  of 
the  Ohio  there  are  frequent  efforts  to  drive  the  Negroes 
out.  On  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  trade  unions 
make  a  serious  and  often  successful  effort  to  organize. 
In  other  words,  employing  whites  absolutely  dominate 
the  far  South,  whereas  employed  whites  have  a  consid 
erable  voice  in  the  government  of  the  border  states. 
Geographically  as  well  as  economically  there  are  two 
Souths.  In  the  first,  undeveloped  workers  are  held  in 
slavery  while  the  most  developed  are  expelled.  In  the 
second,  the  most  developed  may  often  be  welcomed 
while  the  undeveloped  or  half -skilled  are  likely  to  be 
expelled.  It  is  from  the  first  South  that  the  leaders  of 
southern  opinion  are  for  the  most  part  developed.  It 
is  they,  at  any  rate,  almost  exclusively  the  descendants  of 
slave-owners,  that  set  the  whole  tone  of  public  opinion 
of  the  whole  section.  This  is  why  it  is  almost  impos 
sible  that  a  truly  friendly  sentiment  should  be  devel 
oped  in  the  South  among  the  so-called  better  element. 
Not  among  the  so-called  better  element,  the  class  that 
refers  to  itself  in  the  South  as  the  aristocary,  is  the 
Negro  to  expect  his  friends,  but  from  the  despised 
"poor  whites."  It  is  upon  these  that  the  burden  of  com 
petition  with  cheap  Negro  labor  chiefly  falls,  and  it  is 


102 


they  that  are  most  sorely  tempted  by  demagogues  like 
Governor  Hoke  Smith  of  Georgia  to  steal  the  Negro's 
job.  Governor  Smith  said  in  1907  that  he  stood  for  the 
elimination  of  all  competition  between  blacks  and  whites, 
and  he  has  shown  a  dozen  times  during  the  recent  strike 
that  he  is  using  his  power  as  governor  to  this  end.  He 
favors  for  the  Negro  the  "natural  status  of  his  race,  that 
of  inferiority."  Why  should  we  be  surprised,  then,  if 
a  union  asserts  that  the  "South  is  a  white  man's  coun 
try,"  and  that  therefore  no  Negro  is  to  be  placed  above 
any  white? 

But  this  is  not  what  the  ex-slave-owners  or  "those 
who  appreciate  the  advantage  of  having  the  colored  men 
there"  mean  by  a  white  man's  country.  They  mean  that 
the  white  man  is  to  have  the  Negro  do  his  work  on  his 
own  terms.  The  white  laborer  at  his  worst  wants  the 
Negro's  job.  He  has  nothing  to  gain  and  everything 
to  lose  by  the  establishment  of  any  form  of  industrial 
slavery  whether  first  applied  exclusively  to  Negroes  or 
not. 

The  white  laborer's  race  antagonism  has  an  easy 
remedy.  When  there  are  plenty  of  jobs  he  works  gladly 
beside  the  Negro  and  admits  him  in  his  union.  Only 
when  jobs  are  scarce  is  he  tempted  to  take  advantage 
of  the  protection  of  local  governments  to  drive  the 
Negroes  from  their  jobs  or  in  some  border  districts, 
North  and  South,  to  drive  him  from  town. 

In  industries  where  the  Negroes  are  numerous,  the 
whites  necessarily  organized  in  the  same  unions  have 
no  notion  of  demanding  preferential  treatment.  On  the 
contrary,  they  fight  with  the  Negroes  against  those  very 
oligarchies  that  maintain  themselves  solely  by  anti-Negro 
agitation.  Mr.  Fairley,  head  of  the  United  Mine  Work 
ers  for  the  Alabama  district,  has  written  the  conference, 
'"I  may  say  that  the  treatment  accorded  to  the  southern 
working  white  man  by  the  southern  oligarchy  is  little 

103 


if  any  better  than  accorded  to.  the  Negro,  and  therefore 
I  agree  with  you  that  the  interest  of  the  Negro  and  white 
laboring  man  are  inseparably  one.  The  action  of  the 
state  government  in  our  recent  strike  last  summer  in 
Alabama  proved  that  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt." 

The  effort  of  the  laboring  people  to  organize  and 
fight  collectively  for  better  wages  and  better  conditions, 
has  in  fact  met  with  measures  of  coercion  such  as  have 
prevailed  in  no  other  part  of  the  country  unless  we  ex 
cept  some  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  states.  Leaders  of 
powerful  labor  unions  which  have  branches  in  the 
South  are  agreed  that  the  southern  white  laborer  can 
scarcely  expect  greater  justice  from  the  present  state 
governments  than  the  Negro  himself.  A  very  import 
ant  union  official  (whose  name  I  am  not  able  to  dis 
close),  a  man  widely  respected  through  the  country,  was 
ordered  to  leave  the  state  by  one  of  the  governors  of  a 
large  southern  commonwealth. 

If  justice  is  to  be  done  to  the  Negro  in  this  demo 
cratic  country,  it  must  be  done  through  the  enlightened 
and  active  interest  of  some  important  element  or  ele 
ments  of  the  population.  Already  a  certain  part  of  the 
people  of  the  South  have  learned  that  the  disfranchise- 
ment  and  civil  discriminations  must  necessarily  affect 
at  the  same  time  the  poorer  elements  of  the  white  pop 
ulation.  This  has  happened  largely  as  follows :  Econ 
omically  considered,  the  Negroes  constitute  (with  im 
portant  exceptions),  the  lowest  third  of  the  population, 
the  poor  whites  the  middle  third,  and  the  descendants  of 
the  former  slave-owning  aristocracy  and  gentry  and 
their  direct  dependents,  together  with  the  well-to-do 
classes  with  which  they  are  politically  allied,  the  third 
on  top.  When  the  Negroes  or  a  large  part  of  them,  were 
allowed  to  vote,  the  "poor  whites"  held  the  balance  of 
power,  and  it  was  through  this  balance  of  power  that 
the  Populists  at  one  time  obtained  such  a  wide  hold 

104 


on  this  section  and  that  such  men  as  Governor  Varda-^ 
man  of  Mississippi  were  able  to  overthrow  the  old  aris 
tocracy.  Now  that  the  overwhelming  part  of  the  Ne 
groes  are  prevented  from  voting  (by  legal  or  illegal 
means),  the  poorer  whites  are  forced  to  share  their 
power  with  their  former  rivals,  or  rather,  the  political 
power  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  social  group  plac 
ed  somewhere  between  the  poorer  whites,  properly 
speaking,  and  the  so-called  aristocracy. 

As  a  result  of  this  loss  of  political  power  by  the 
"poor  whites"  we  see  in  various  parts  of  the  South  the 
economic  system  of  peonage  and  the  political  system  of 
government  by  terror,  invented  originally  for  use  against 
the  Negroes  turned  against  certain  elements  of  the 
white  population,  especially  foreigners.  It  was  even 
proposed  recently  in  certain  Mississippi  towns  to  segre 
gate  the  Italians  in  the  public  schools.  In  Biloxi,  Mis 
sissippi,  the  disregard  for  the  propertyless  classes  has 
gone  so  far  that  an  effort  has  been  made  recently  to 
force  those  who  could  not  pay  their  municipal  taxes  to 
work  on  the  streets.  Innumerable  examples  of  a  grow 
ing  despotism  can  be  collected  from  all  the  southern 
states.  Let  us  mention  only  the  convict  labor  system 
applied  in  some  places  to  whites  as  well  as,  blacks,  by 
which  a  shortage  of  labor  is  supplied  by  the  loan  of 
prisoners,  and  judges  friendly  to  employers  are  placed 
tinder  the  temptation  of  increasing  this  supply. 

All  this  in  the  far  South.  As  is  well  known,  all  of 
the  border  states  have  been  more  or  less  evenly  divided 
politically  for  many  years  and  among  these  states  we 
may  soon  be  able  to  include  both  North  Carolina  and 
Tennessee.  This  condition  of  comparative  political 
health  has  already  led  to  a  very  rapid  and  most  encour 
aging  increase  of  true  democracy  in  government,  and 
there  is  every  reason  for  belief  that  if  the  other  sec 
tions  of  the  country  took  a  stand  for  the  Negro's  rights 

105 


at  the  same  time  that  they  assumed  a  friendly  attitude 
to  the  true  democracy  of  the  South  and  ceased  to  view 
the  Negro  situation  as  a  sectional  question,  all  the  bor 
der  states  would  begin  to  assume  a  fairer  attitude  to 
wards  the  persecuted  race. 

This  leaves  only  to  be  considered  the  eight  states  of 
the  far  South  and  Virginia.  As  we  have  pointed  out 
the  white  laboring  element  of  the  section  is  already  wav 
ering.  Only  twelve  or  fourteen  years  ago  a  large  ele 
ment  of  the  white  farming  population  in  several  states 
was  co-operating  with  a  similar  Negro  element.  The 
object  of  any  promising  movement,  first,  last,  and  all 
the  time,  must  be  to  find  in  behalf  of  the  Negro  means 
to  encourage  these  small  beginnings  of  the  feeling  of 
friendliness. 

With  these  facts  and  this  possibility  in  view,  why 
can  we  not  hope  that  a  few  years  of  the  right  policy 
may  secure  an  increasing  measure  of  justice  for  the 
Negro  in  the  border  states  and  that  a  generation  of  na 
tional  co-operation  and  education,  national  organizations 
of  farmers  and  workingmen,  may  even  convert  the 
white  masses  of  the  far  South  to  a  correct  attitude? 
The  more  numerous  elements  of  the  population  are 
those  who  will  finally  decide,  and  they  are  almost  cer 
tain  to  decide  justly  since  it  is  precisely  these  poor  far 
mers  and  laboring  people  that  are  economically  most 
nearly  related  to  the  Negro. 

This  policy  does  not  imply  that  an  appeal  should  not 
be  made  at  the  same  time  to  the  descendants  of  slave 
owners,  in  their  own  interests  and  those  of  the  South, 
as -well  as  in  the  interest  of  justice  and  humanity;  nor 
on  the  other  hand  that  the  rest  of  the  nation  should  re 
lent  in  any  way  its  demand  for  the  enforcement  of  the 
Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments,  for  they  bring 
to  bear  that  very  form  of  pressure,  just  and  gentle,  that 
conscience  does  not  allow  us  to  dispense  with,  and  that 

106 


is  the  only  way  one  brother  may  really  hope  to  prevent 
even  the  worst  errors  of  another.  But  as  long  as  the 
solid  South  resists  we  can  hardly  expect  a  very  thor 
ough  enforcement.  To  accomplish  this,  we  must  first 
break  the  solid  South.  The  effort  that  has  been  made 
in  the  name  of  imperialism  and  a  prohibitive  tariff  must 
be  made  in  the  name  of  democracy. 

The  masses  of  the  southern  population  must  be  shown 
that  their  interests  lie  in  a  gradual  extension  of  the  suf 
frage  to  the  Negroes  as  fast  at  least  as  the  latter  can 
receive  a  moderate  school  education.  They  must  real 
ize  that  it  is  to  their  interest  to  provide  for  this  educa 
tion  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  in  spite  of  their  poverty 
they  must  show  the  widest  liberality  in  this  respect. 
The  northern  democracy,  on  the  other  hand,  would  be 
tremendously  strengthened,  if  Senators  Tillman  and 
Bailey  and  their  like  were  replaced  in  the  national  coun 
cils  by  true  Democrats  representing  the  educated  white 
laborers  and  farmers  as  well  as  the  educated  Negroes  of 
those  or  other  economic  classes.  Such  an  accession  to 
the  national  legislature  would  immensely  strengthen  the 
popular  cause  throughout  the  whole  nation.  In  return, 
a  body  of  true  southern  representatives  could  demand 
effectually  from  the  nation  a  fair  treatment  not  only 
for  the  southern  farmers  and  workingmen  but  of  the 
whole  South  a  fairer  treatment  than  has  ever  been  re 
ceived  or  ever  could  be  through  any  alliance  based  upon 
any  other  principle  than  that  of  democracy  itself. 

As  some  Negroes  have  expressed  it,  it  is  now  pro 
posed  by  certain  parties,  to  cement  the  friendship  of  the 
whites  of  the  North  with  the  whites  of  the  South  over 
the  prostrate  body  of  the  Negro.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
to  the  direct  economic  and  political  interest  of  the  true 
southern  democracy,  whether  white  or  colored,  whether 
of  the  Republican  or  Democratic  parties,  to  join  hands 
with  the  corresponding  democracy  of  the  North.  Im- 

107 


perialism  or  the  cause  of  a  prohibitive  tariff  could  unite 
only  certain  restricted  elements  of  the  two  sections,  how 
ever  powerful  socially  and  economically  these  elements 
may  be.  Only  by  the  nationalization  of  our  existing 
democracy,  by  its  extension  into  the  South  through  the 
better  organization  and  representation  of  the  masses  of 
the  southern  people,  can  sectionalism  be  eliminated.  Any 
other  method  must  first  leave  the  masses  of  the  country 
divided  on  geographical  lines  as  before,  and  then  by 
forcing  the  Negro  backward,  endanger  the  very  founda 
tion  of  their  power.  For  if  the  class  that  rules  the 
South  at  the  present  moment,  with  its  anti-Negro  propa 
ganda,  once  succeeds  in  making  a  permanent  alliance 
with  the  corrupt  corporations  and  politicians  of  the 
North,  now  fortunately  segregated  in  another  party,  a 
far  more  dangerous  system  of  class  rule  will  be  evolved 
in  America  than  we  had  before  the  Civil  War;  and  this 
unholy  alliance  is  impending  this  very  moment.  The 
class  that  stands  for  persecution  of  the  Negro  once  giv 
en  a  share  in  our  national  government  will  stand  for 
any  and  every  other  form  of  attack  on  free  and  demo 
cratic  institutions,  every  form  of  reaction  known  to 
eastern  Europe. 

No  greater  peril  stands  before  democrats  of  every 
race  in  this  country  than  the  permanent  participation  of 
the  southern  reactionary  element  in  our  national  legis 
lature,  no  greater  hope  than  that  the  true  democracy  of 
the  South  shall  be  properly  presented  in  our  national 
counsels,  no  matter  through  what  party.  The  Negro's 
only  hope  is  at  the  same  time  the  sole  safeguard  of  the 
nation.  This  is  the  thought  and  the  hope  of  the  farmers 
and  workingmen  of  the  whole  nation  to  their  southern 
brethren :  By  lowering  the  political  and  economic  status 
of  the  colored  population  which  furnishes  half  your  co- 
workers  in  agriculture  and  industry,  you  inevitably  cut 
in  half  your  own  ability  to  resist  greedy  employers,  or 

108 


those  economic  forces  against  which  farmers  have  to 
contend.  You  gain  nothing  from  cheapened  labor  in  the 
towns  and  cheapened  prices  on  the  farms  that  inevitably 
result  from  the  crushing  of  the  colored  population. 
Many  of  you  have  already  learned  what  you  suffer  at 
the  hands  of  the  present  oligarchies  and  have  frequent 
ly  found  yourselves  forced  to  unite  with  the  Negroes 
against  them.  Now  join  yourselves  once  for  all  with 
us  your  brother  farmers  and  workingmen  from  other 
sections  of  the  country.  Do  not  allow  yourselves  to  be 
longer  divided  from  us  by  the  false  fear  of  Negro  dom 
ination.  By  so  doing  you  not  only  rivet  your  own  chains 
but  you  hold  back  the  whole  country.  Join  us,  bring 
with  you  the  best  elements  of  the  colored  population, 
whose  aid  you  will  find  indispensable  for  your  own 
emancipation  in  the  South,  and  we  will  see  to  it  that 
your  interests  and  welfare  are  advanced  in  the  national 
government  as  never  before  for  a  hundred  years. 

Remain  divided  from  us  and  we  are  helpless  to  aid 
you  or  protect  ourselves.  Join  us  and  victory  of  the 
cause  of  progress  and  democracy  is  assured. 


IOQ 


DISCUSSION 

MR.  WALDRON  :  There  are  many  things  that  I  would 
like  to  say,  but  I  want  to  emphasize  that  I  believe  we 
have  not  laid  enough  stress  on  the  white  side  of  this 
thing.  The  Negro  side  is  bad,  but  unless  something  is 
done  to  change  things,  the  poor  white  man  not  only  of 
the  South,  but  particularly  in  the  South,  is  going  to  feel 
the  pinch  of  the  shoe  just  as  much  as  the  Negro. 

MR.  BANNON:  We  are  very  much  encouraged  that 
we  are  permitted  to  have  the  privilege  and  opportunity 
of  meeting  with  white  men  and  white  women  and  con 
verse  about  these  matters.  I  think  my  Negro  friends, 
that  if  the  Negro  will  show  a  little  more  spirit,  and 
stand  up  on  his  feet,  the  white  man  will  stand  by  him. 

MR.  STEMMONS:  The  man  must  be  dull  indeed  who 
does  not  realize  the  crisis  reached  in  the  race  situation 
in  this  country.  I  believe  that  no  better  opportunity  has 
ever  been  presented  and  that  no  better  ever  will  be 
presented  again  for  starting  the  flood  of  influence  which 
controls  the  situation  flowing  in  the  right  direction.  But 
let  us  not  be  deceived.  Unless  we  meet  this  situation 
with  dignity,  wisdom  and  foresight,  we  will  merely  add 
fuel  to  flames  already  raging  in  this  country,  and  make 
it  more  difficult  than  ever  before  to  overcome  the  same. 
Everybody  in  this  presence  very  likely  has  the  same  idea 
of  the  race  situation  in  this  country.  For  a  few  indi 
viduals  to  hold  an  ideal,  to  create  an  ideal  which  they 
are  willing  to  live  up  to,  and  which  they  believe  the  gen 
eral  public  ought  to  live  up  to,  is  a  noble  thing;  but  for 
them  to  produce  a  line  of  action  that  will  override  op 
position  and  make  this  ideal  part  of  the  public  life,  is 
quite  another  thing.  If  mere  conferences  and  talks  and 

no 


resolutions  and  protests  and  appeals  were  all  that  are 
needed,  we  have  already  enough  of  these  to  settle  a  dozen 
such  questions  instead  of  making  it  worse  and  worse, 
as  has  been  the  case  with  the  race  situation  in  this  coun 
try  for  thi?  past  forty-five  years.  The  trouble  has  been, 
I  think,  oar  failure  to  recognize  and  act  upon  the  in 
fluences  that  control  this  situation  and  keep  it  alive,  fail 
ure  to  recognize  and  appreciate  the  basic  conditions  upon 
which  depend  the  development  of  the  race. 

Give  us  an  economic  opportunity,  that  is  what  the 
race  asks.  The  physical  conditions  of  the  race  depend 
upon  it.  For  example,  a  good  many  people  say  to  me 
that  the  conditions  of  the  Negro  are  gradually  improv 
ing  throughout  the  country.  Ask  them  for  their  basis 
for  such  an  assertion,  and  they  say  the  colored  people 
are  owning  better  houses,  building  bigger  churches,  en 
gaging  in  more  businesses  and  in  more  diversified 
branches  of  labor  than  ever  before.  We  admit  this,  but 
I  refuse  to  admit  it  without  ample  qualifications. 

I  refuse  to  accept  that  point,  because  while  a  few 
Negroes  are  successful  in  this  way,  in  business  and  in 
professional  lines,  at  least  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  col 
ored  people  are  engaged  in'domestic  and  personal  labors, 
and  the  lines  against  them  in  these  avenues  of  labor  are 
being  drawn  closer  and  closer  each  succeeding  year. 
Why,  the  most  important  field  that  we  have  had  in  the 
North  for  colored  men  has  been  working  at  the  hotels. 
But  now,  with  very  few  exceptions,  none  of  the  first- 
class  hotels  will  employ  a  colored  waiter.  There  is  not 
a  first-class  hotel  in  any  northern  city  that  will  employ 
colored  men.  Furthermore,  on  the  menus  of  these  hotels 
you  will  find  a  statement:  "Nothing  but  white  help  em 
ployed  in  this  establishment."  Ten  years  ago  in  reading 
in  the  help  wanted  columns  of  any  daily  newspaper,  you 
would  find  a  large  percentage  of  domestic  situations 
specifying  Negroes.  To-day  there  are  comparatively 

in 


no  calls  for  a  Negro  domestic,  while  an  increasing  per 
centage  of  the  calls  foi  Domestics  specify  that  none  but 
white  are  needed. 

But  notwithstanding  the  extent  to  whidi  they  are 
being  excluded  along  lines  of  these  domestic  and  per 
sonal  services,  we  all  know  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
for  them  to  find  lucrative  employment  in  any  other  line. 
I  say,  and  I  challenge  anyone  to  refute  my  contention, 
that  the  opportunities  of  the  colored  people  are  growing 
fewer  and  fewer  throughout  all  parts  of  this  country. 
And  I  believe  there  is  not  another  race  of  people  who 
will  so  placidly  and  indifferently  permit  themselves  to 
be  pushed  aside  in  the  industrial  enterprises  of  this 
country,  as  will  the  Negro. 

MR.  STEMMONS  :  Did  you  ever  sit  down  and  se 
riously  ask  yourself  the  question,  why  the  colored  people 
stay  in  the  South  and  submit  to  the  indignities  and  in 
sults  heaped  upon  them?  I  will  tell  you  why.  It  is 
because  of  their  knowledge  that  they  cannot  make  an 
honest  living  in  any  other  part  of  the  country.  That 
is  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  matter,  to  make  it  pos 
sible  for  the  Negroes  to  live  in  the  South,  to  so  adjust 
and  regulate  industrial  opportunities  throughout  the 
country  that  no  man  more  than  any  other  may  have  an 
advantage. 

MR.  J.  MORGAN,  of  Brooklyn:  The  question  is  sim 
ply  one  of  bread  and  butter.  If  there  be  not  suffi 
cient  bread  and  butter  to  go  around,  the  white  man  cer 
tainly  has  every  reason  to  think  that  he  has  a  right  to 
attack  the  Negro  as  he  has  attacked  him  to-day. 

The  problem  confronting  us  to-day  is  simply  that  the 
Negro  is  placed  in  a  position  where  he  is  losing  his 
political  rights.  As  Professor  DuBois  has  well  said, 
as  he  loses  his  political  rights,  he  naturally  loses  those 
economic  rights  that  he  is  heir  to.  He  is  just  as  much 
an  heir  to  his  economic  rights,  I  say,  as  the  whitest  man 

112 


or  the  blackest  man  is  heir  to  Milton,  or  is  heir  to 
Galileo,  or  whatever  the  world  has  done ;  to  all  these 
the  Negro  is  just  as  much  heir  as  any  other  member  of 
you  here. 

MR.  WILLIAM  M.  TROTTER,  of  Boston:  The  exist 
ence  of  color  lines  in  industrial  matters  is  calamitous — 
the  industrial  and  civil  differentiation  of  political  mat 
ters,  as  has  been  so  well  described  to-day.  But  to  my 
mind  that  which  is  the  grossest  calamity  and  the  most 
telling,  and  1  must  say  the  grossest  outrage,  seems  to 
me  the  attitude  of  the  federal  government,  which  is 
guilty  of  standing  in  the  position  of  giving  its  authority 
to  color  proscription.  Now,  I  think  the  strike  in  Geor 
gia  has  opened  our  eyes.  It  has  been  the  boast  of  the 
South  that  while  they  have  denied  the  colored  man 
political  rights,  they  give  him  industrial  freedom  and 
liberty.  And  what  do  we  find  ?  We  find  that  in  the 
South  the  right  of  the  colored  man  to  work  is  being 
denied.  When  they  can  do  it,  they  can  turn  a  colored 
man  out  of  any  line  of  work  for  which  they  can  secure 
a  white.  And  why  is  this?  Because  he  is  disfranchised. 
We  know  that  Congress  refused  to  take  hold  of  this 
political  situation,  either  to  stop  this  disfranchisement 
or  punish  it,  although  in  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth 
Amendments  Congress  specifically  has  this  power,  and 
it  is  its  duty  to  do  so.  We  know  the  Supreme  Court 
dodges  the  issue,  and  when  it  is  finally  face  to  face  with 
it,  asserts  that  it  is  not  for  the  Supreme  Court,  it  is 
for  Congress.  And  with  reference  to  the  declaration 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  I  think  that  is 
most  serious.  I  have  read  and  re-read  it,  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  it  is  the  most  insidious  and  skilful,  and  there 
fore  the  most  dangerous  attitude  ever  taken  by  a  Presi 
dent.  He  admits  that  a  man  is  not  disfranchised  on 
account  of  color,  and  he  calls  that  a  step  in  the  right 
direction.  Now  he  goes  on  to  discuss  these  revised 


statutes  under  which  he  admits  we  have  a  franchise,  and 
finally  he  comes  down  to  a  statement  something  like 
this:  That  as  long  as  these  laws  stand,  it  is  neither  the 
disposition  nor  is  it  within  the  province  of  the  federal 
government  to  interfere  with  the  southern  states  in  the 
handling  of  their  domestic  affairs. 

Now,  my  friends,  that  reads  to  me  like  a  justification 
of  colored  disfranchisement.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is. 
And  I  have  come  to  this  conference  to  say  that  we  have 
to  face  the  facts  that  are  before  us,  and  the  conditions 
that  are  before  us,  no  matter  in  how  high  places.  Some 
one  has  said  here  that  we  have  too  much  agitation ;  that 
what  we  want  is  to  get  industrial  opportunity.  We  do 
want  to  get  industrial  opportunity,  but  if  we  are  not 
to  have  our  franchise,  it  certainly  has  been  shown  that 
we  will  lose  industrial  opportunity.  Mr.  Taft  goes  one 
step  further.  He  says  something  which  it  seems  to  me 
absolutely  indefensible,  and  which  is  in  line  with  our 
talk.  He  has  announced,  and  you  all  know  it,  that  col 
ored  men  should  be  given  office  by  the  colored  people, 
not  as  a  right  of  citizenship,  and  that  the  government 
should  see  to  it  whether  or  not  the  appointment  is  going 
to  help  the  race.  Now,  my  friends,  if  the  President  of 
the  United  States  is  going  to  openly  announce  as  Pres 
ident  of  this  country,  that  the  colored  citizens  or  the 
white  citizens  are  to  be  consulted  about  the  positions  to 
be  held  by  colored  men,  you  have  the  authority  and 
seal  of  our  highest  official  behind  the  idea  that  the  col 
ored  people  cannot  hold  positions  that  other  people  do 
not  want  them  to  have,  because  it  will  do  the  colored 
people  more  harm  than  good. 

MR.  CHARLES  EDWARD  RUSSELL:  I  don't  believe  my 
self,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  we  are  going  to  help  the 
situation  very  much  by  moving  our  colored  brethren 
from  the  South  to  the  North,  or  from  the  North  to  the 
South.  I  don't  believe  it  is  going  to  help  very  much  to 

114 


assist  him  if  he  is  a  good  workman;  but  I  do  believe 
that  the  remedy,  if  you  want  one,  lies  only  in  an  appeal 
to  the  innate  conscience  of  the  American  people.  I  can't 
think  that  we  have  had  too  much  agitation.  I  can't 
think  that  we  have  had  enough  agitation.  I  have  been 
following  my  colored  brother  with  my  sympathy,  with 
all  my  heart,  because  my  father  was  an  abolitionist,  and 
I  am  bound  to  say  that  I  have  had  more  education  on 
this  question  since  ten  o'clock  this  morning,  than  I  have 
had  before  in  all  the  rest  of  my  life,  and  I  think  I  have 
been  a  pretty  close  observer.  I  can  tell  you  that  what 
I  have  heard  to-day  has  opened  up  an  entirely  new  hori 
zon  to  me.  And  I  say  this  although  I  am  a  student  more 
or  less  and  in  a  position  where  I  can  see  the  world  as 
it  goes  by.  Now  there  are  only  a  few  of  us  here,  but 
it  is  a  beginning,  and  everything  has  to  have  its  begin 
ning,  every  great  movement  has  to.  have  its  beginning, 
and  if  we  will  strike  hands  together  and  increase  our 
numbers  and  look  forward,  we  will  have  our  remedy,  if 
we  faint  not,  believe  me. 

MR.  BARBER:  It  is  because  I  wish  to  go  on  record, 
as  regards  the  question  which  has  been  raised  by  one  of 
my  friends  here,  that  I  am  so  anxious  to  speak.  I  want 
to  say  that  there  is  a  great  fundamental  difficulty  at  the 
bottom  of  this  problem,  and  it  lies  not  in  economics  but  in 
politics.  On  that  question  I  am  with  William  Lloyd  Gar 
rison,  Mr.  Russell,  and  the  other  men  that  have  taken  the 
stand  here.  If  you  will  give  a  man  the  right  to  vote, 
if  you  will  put  the  ballot  in  his  hands,  if  you  will  give 
him  the  right  to  protect  himself,  and  if  he  will  see  that 
the  proper  man  goes  to  Congress,  a  man  who  will  see 
that  American  citizens  are  protected  in  their  rights,  then 
you  will  get  these  other  things.  If  you  want  to  solve  the 
race  problem,  you  have  to  get  men  who  have  the  right  to 
vote,  to  say  who  shall  be  the  governor  or  the  judge,  with 
the  right  to  sit  on  juries  to  protect  themselves,  the  right 


to  punish  sheriffs  for  doing  what  they  have  done  in 
office.  And  when  you  come  to  this  place  and  tell  me 
that  economics  and  industry  are  going  to  solve  this  prob 
lem,  I  think  you  are  radically  wrong.  Industry  should 
be  just  merely  a  stepping  stone  to  higher  things  in 
this  republic,  and  I  wish  to  say  the  thing  that  is 
needed  more  particularly  in  this  problem  is  more  back 
bone.  If  you  are  going  to  solve  the  race  problem,  you 
must  have  men  of  the  William  Lloyd  Garrison  stripe. . 
You  must  have  men  that  will  be  willing  to  stand  up  for 
humanity,  and  for  their  convictions  on  this  question. 

MR.  BENSON  :  I  did  not  expect  to  have  anything  to 
say  until  some  one  spoke  about  moving  the  Negroes  from 
the  South  to  the  North.  I  believe  that  if  we  are  going 
to  settle  this  problem  that  it  is  the  white  who  must  set 
tle  it,  and  not  the  other,  and  I  hope  that  whatever  meth 
ods  are  determined  upon  by  this  conference,  they  will 
be  planned  upon  methods  that  are  natural  to  us — natural 
to  us  in  the  South,  and  natural  to  us  in  the  North.  I 
am  only  going  to  speak  for  one  particular  section  of 
the  country,  and  that  is  the  South,  and  I  am  only  going 
to  speak  for  one  particular  section  of  the  South,  and  that 
is  the  rural  district,  because  that  is  where  my  exper 
ience  has  been,  and  I  don't  know  very  much  about  any 
thing  else.  What  arc  we  going  to  do  to  keep  the  Ne 
groes  from  going  to  the  north?  It  is  to  make  labor 
remunerative  so  that  he  can  exist  in  the  South. 

I  was  born  and  reared  in  a  little  rural  community  in 
Alabama  to  which  I  returned  after  graduating  from 
college,  and  to  which  I  have  devoted  my  life,  and  I 
want  to  say  that  there  is  probably  not  a  community  in 
the  South  where  the  relations  between  the  two  races 
have  been  so  pleasant,  and  where  the  people  are  so  well 
satisfied  as  they  are  there.  Why?  Because  they  have 
something  to  do,  and  you  can't  ride  through  that  com 
munity  and  look  at  the  schools  and  tell  which  is  the 

1 16 


white  man's  school,  or  which  is  the  black  man's  school. 
I  only  mention  this  to  tell  you  that  we  are  not  dissat 
isfied  down  there.  We  will  welcome  all  that  you  can 
do  for  us  in  the  way  of  bringing  us  our  rights  to  vote, 
but  we  can't  sit  down  and  argue  while  you  are  bringing 
us  this  right.  And  the  most  healthful  thing  that  we  all 
can  do,  is  to  bring  into  the  communities  those  influences 
which  are  going  not  only  to  help  to  make  a  revenue, 
but  are  going  to  help  make  life  as  pleasant  and  attractive 
there  as  any  other  place  in  the  world. 

MR.  MILLER:  We  are  fully  convinced,  from  the  ad 
dress  delivered  by  Mr.  DuBois  this  afternoon,  that  the 
millennium  has  not  come  as  yet.  But  in  seeking 
the  solution  of  these  questions  we  are  confront 
ed  by  the  question  as  to  whether  Mr.  Barber 
is  correct  in  saying  that  it  is  not  an  economic, 
but  a  political  point  of  view.  Well,  it  depends 
largely  upon  the  point  of  view.  I  think  economics  is  at 
the  foundation  of  the  whole  thing.  But  we  must  come 
to  economics  through  politics,  so  it  depends  upon  the 
viewpoint  largely  as  to  the  truth  of  the  whole  thing. 
I  have  studied  the  colored  man  pretty  well,  and  I  find 
the  greatest  difficulty  with  the  colored  man  as  a  rule  is 
that  he  is  true  to  one  thing.  I  don't  find  him  ordinar 
ily  true  to  his  religion,  I  don't  find  him  true  to  his 
friends,  I  don't  find  him  true  to  his  trusts.  He  is  just 
as  derelict  in  these  things  as  the  white  man.  But  I  find 
the  one  thing  that  the  colored  man  is  devoted  to,  and 
that  ideal  is  Republicanism.  That  is  his  religion.  Now 
it  is  not  until  a  colored  man  can  break  away  from  this 
ideal,  this  religion  of  Republicanism,  that  he  will  get  his 
liberty  through  economics.  Of  course  Mr.  Taft,  or  Mr. 
anybody  else,  can  treat  the  colored  man  as  Mr.  Taft 
treats  him,  and  the  colored  man  can  be  treated  as 
the  Supreme  Court  treats  him,  he  can  be  treated  as  Con 
gress  treats  him,  as  long  as  this  colored  man  will 

117 


stand  firmly  by  the  Republican  ticket.  We  know  that 
in  various  parts  of  the  country  they  rebel,  they  say  we 
will  cut  the  party,  we  will  organize  an  independent 
party,  or  we  will  stand  by  some  other  old  party,  but  on 
the  eve  of  election  day,  the  great  majority  of  them  will 
come  together  and  say,  let  us  trust  the  dear  old  party 
one  more  time — and  the  Republicans  know  it.  Now, 
there  is  the  great  Socialistic  party  which  stands  for 
economic  independence,  which  is  the  hope  of  the  future 
to-day.  I  stand  for  rights.  There  are  some  people  who 
say  they  want  certain  rights  and  do  not  want  others. 
Some  people  say  they  are  not  looking  for  social  equal 
ity.  I  want  every  kind  of  equality  I  can  have.  By  that 
I  do  not  mean  that  I  want  to  force  myself  upon  any 
man's  presence.  I  never  sought  a  man  socially  in  my 
life,  and  I  don't  expect  to.  I  don't  care  whether  he  be 
rich  as  Carnegie,  holy  as  St.  John,  wise  as  Socrates,  or 
white  as  the  Albanian  fathers,  but  what  I  want  is  equal 
ity,  and  if  I  don't  get  equality,  then  I  want  superiority. 
Under  Socialism  we  have  economic  independence. 
Everyone  has  the  right  to  work  and  every  man  has  the 
full  reward  of  his  labors. 

MRS.  IDA  WELLS  BARNETT  :  I  think  perhaps  I  ought  to 
say  something  regarding  what  has  been  said  about  agita 
tion,  about  the  beginnings  of  things,  about  the  small 
things.  Our  people  of  course  cannot  very  clearly  see  these 
things  from  the  scientific  standpoint,  they  have  not  the 
training  necessary  to  see  abstract  things  as  clearly  as 
they  see  the  concrete.  To  them,  therefore,  as  has  been 
said  here  this  afternoon,  this  question  of  talking  seems 
to  be  a  rather  small  thing,  and  it  is  in  a  way.  There  is 
a  kind  of  talking  that  does  not  accomplish  anything,  and 
there  is  a  sort  of  talking  that  does,  that  makes  for  the 
beginning  of  great  things.  I  have  had  in  mind  some 
thing  which  might  be  called  recrimination  and  we  will 
not  hold  ourselves  blameless  in  all  these  matters  of 

118 


which  we  speak.  I  want  to  say  as  a  last  word  to  my 
own  fellow-citizens  of  the  darker  side  of  this  house: 
Let  us  ask  ourselves  first  if  we  ourselves  have  done  all 
that  we  should  do  in  helping  to  bring  about  the  things 
so  necessary,  and  in  helping  others.  Fifteen  years  ago 
when  the  agitation  was  begun  in  this  country,  or  launch 
ed  in  England  and  afterwards  in  this  country,  and  the 
question  of  funds  arose  with  which  to  do  the  work  of 
spreading  information  regarding  lynching,  a  plea  was 
sent  out  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  to  get  contri 
butions  of  nickels  and  pennies  and  dimes  for  our  own 
people.  That  was  the  beginning  of  things  to  show  the 
American  white  people  that  they  did  not  know  the  facts. 
It  was  your  duty  and  it  was  my  duty  to  tell  them  these 
facts,  to  put  them  in  their  minds  and  to  read  them  to 
them.  Did  we  do  it?  How  much  money  did  we  give? 
How  much  more  did  we  tax  ourselves  in  order  that  we 
might  help  in  bringing  about  this  work?  Now  don't 
let  us  discourage  these  friends  that  have  come  to  help  us. 
Let  us  not  spend  the  time  talking  about  who  is  to  blame 
on  the  other  side  of  the  line,  but  let  us  close  up  our 
lines,  and  not  forget  that  this  is  only  the  beginning  of 
the  thing.  Let  us  prepare  to  spread  the  information  in 
order  to  get  these  other  people  interested  in  the  matter 
and  we  will  find  that  with  their  help  we  will  be  able  to 
go  forward. 

MR.  TRIDON  :  What  we  white  people  need  is  educa 
tion.  I  am  sick  of  hearing  white  people  talk  about  edu 
cating  the  Negro.  I  am  sick  of  hearing  about  uplifting 
men.  It  seems  to  me  when  a  man  needs  to  be  uplifted, 
he  ir  not  worth  bothering  about.,  But  you  need  to  get 
the  white  people.  You  need  to  show  that  you  are  not 
beasts.  The  white  people  think  you  are  beasts.  They 
know  it.  They  learned  it  in  school.  The  boys  should 
not  doubt  the  words  of  their  teachers.  Why  should 
those  white  people  doubt  the  words  of  their  teacher? 

119 


But  they  will  if  you  give  them  proofs  to  the  contrary. 
If  you  will  distribute  pamphlets  and  literature;  if  you 
will  blow  your  own  horn  you  will  get  your  audience.  We 
must  find  books  and  pamphlets  published  by  the  col 
ored  man,  and  we  must  have  some  kind  of  a  publication 
which  at  least  shall  show  not  only  when  a  colored  man 
assaults  a  white  woman,  but  when  a  colored  man  saves 
the  life  of  a  white  woman. 

MR.  ROBINSON  :  A  remedy  has  been  asked  for,  and 
I  would  suggest  that  the  remedy  used  by  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  is  a  very  good  one.  It  is  a  very  slow  but  a 
very  effective  one.  When  Mr.  Garrison  first  began  his 
addresses  against  slavery,  he  could  not  get  a  room  in  a 
house  in  Boston,  and  he  had  to  give  his  first  talks  on 
the  streets.  It  seems  to  me  that  we  never  bring  about 
any  desired  results  without  a  little  time.  It  takes  time 
to  make  men  competent.  Our  best  workmen  are  those 
who  have  suffered,  who  have  been  the  men  who  worked 
the  hardest  and  who  became  competent  very  slowly, 
and  many  of  them  not  at  all.  I  was  born  and  brought 
up  in  Louisiana,  in  the  rural  districts,  and  I  worked  for 
five  or  six  years  for  a  farmer.  One  day  I  said  to  him, 
"Captain,  what  do  you  think  of  the  so-called  race  prob 
lem?  I  see  it  in  all  the  papers.  What  do  you  think  of 
it?"  He  said,  "I  don't  think  there  is  any  race  problem. 
You  are  working  for  me,  do  I  give  myself  any  concern 
about  your  work?"  I  said,  "You  don't."  He  said,  "It 
is  the  same  thing  with  regard  to  your  race.  I  give  my 
self  no  concern  with  regard  to  your  race.  You  are 
solving  your  own  problem,  aren't  you?"  and  I  said,  "I 
am";  and  he  said,  "That  is  just  how  it  will  be  with  your 
race."  And  I  said,  "I  believe  you." 


1 20 


Wednesday  Evening  Session 

Judge  Wendell  P.  Stafford,  Chairman 


Address  of 

Judge  Wendell  P.  Stafford 

of  the 

Supreme  Court  of  the  District  of   Columbia 

I  believe  in  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood 
of  man.  Not  the  brotherhood  of  white  men  but  the 
brotherhood  of  all  men.  I  believe  in  the  golden  rule  and 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  I  stand  by  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  including  the  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  Amendments.  That  is  my  creed  and  my 
platform. 

Some  questions  are  difficult  because  they  are  so  com 
plicated.  Others  are  difficult  because  they  are  so  sim 
ple.  Duty  is  apt  to  be  difficult,  and  the  simplest  duty 
may  yet  be  the  hardest.  I  assume  that  human  nature  is 
substantially  the  same  in  every  climate  and  under  every 
skin.  I  assume  that  the  white  people  of  the  South  are 
in  themselves  no  better  and  no  worse  that  the  white 
people  of  the  North.  I  assume  that  their  opinions  and 
conduct  are  what  ours  might  have  been  if  we  had  come 
under  the  same  influences  and  conditions.  But  such  con 
siderations  do  not  settle  the  question :  what  is  right  ? 

The  broad  subject  of  our  conference  is  the  Negro  and 
the  nation,  not  the  Negro  and  the  North,  not  the  Negro 

121 


and  the  South,  not  the  Negro  and  the  white  man,  but 
the  Negro  and  the  nation.  The  questions  it  brings  up  are 
national.  They  cannot  be  settled  by  any  one  race  and 
still  less  by  any  one  section.  They  concern  the  whole 
country  and  they  must  be  answered  by  the  country  as  a 
whole.  If  the  Constitution  is  not  binding  in  South  Caro 
lina  it  is  not  binding  in  New  York.  If  it  cannot  protect 
the  black  man  it  cannot  long  protect  the  white.  If  fif 
teen  states  can  set  aside  the  Constitution  at  their  pleasure 
there  is  no  Constitution  worth  the  name.  If  a  state  can 
nullify  one  clause  it  can  nullify  the  whole.  If  a  state 
can,  in  a  single  congressional  district,  deliberately  exclude 
three-fourths  of  its  eligible  voters  from  the  polls  on  the 
real  ground  of  color,  and  yet  insist  upon  having  them  all 
counted  for  the  purpose  of  holding  a  seat  in  the  national 
assembly,  it  can  perpetrate  a  fraud  on  every  legally  con 
stituted  congressional  district  in  the  United  States,  and 
there  is  no  security  for  representative  government  in  any 
corner  of  the  land.  If  any  class  or  race  can  be  perma 
nently  set  apart  from  and  pushed  down  below  the  rest 
in  political  and  civil  rights,  so  may  any  other  class  or 
race  when  it  shall  incur  the  displeasure  of  its  more  pow 
erful  associates,  and  we  may  say  farewell  at  once  to  the 
principles  on  which  we  have  counted  for  our  safety. 

We  are  confronted  not  by  a  theory  but  by  a  fact.  That 
fact  is  the  deliberate  and  avowed  exclusion  of  a  whole 
race  of  our  fellow  citizens  from  their  constitutional 
rights,  accompanied  by  the  announcement  that  that  ex 
clusion  must  and  shall  be  permanent.  It  is  not  that  the 
Negro  is  ignorant,  nor  that,  he  is  poor,  nor  that  he  is 
vicious,  but  that  he  is  a  Negro.  Even  when  he  is  good 
and  learned  and  rich,  he  must  still  be  excluded  because 
he  is  still  a  Negro.  That  is  the  proposition,  and  that 

122 


it  is  which  makes  it  the  duty  of  all  who  dissent  from 
such  a  doctrine  to  make  their  dissent  known  and  to  make 
it  uncompromising  and  clear. 

If  the  southern  states  were  only  taking  the  ground 
that  all  voters  white  and  black  alike  must  possess  cer 
tain  high  qualifications  in  property  and  education,  the 
situation  would  not  be  what  it  is.  Such  restrictions 
might  result  in  the  exclusion  of  the  great  mass  of  colored 
men  as  it  would  result  in  the  exclusion  of  large  num 
bers  of  the  white.  Yet  we  might  well  wait  for  the  ef 
fects  of  time.  If  any  indication  were  to  be  found  that 
the  South  is  looking  forward  to  a  day  when  the  colored 
man  shall  exercise  his  political  rights  and  that  it  is  pro 
viding  some  process,  no  matter  how  slow  and  gradual, 
by  which  that  result  may  be  attained,  it  might  be  our 
patriotic  duty  to  hold  our  peace.  But  when  no  such  in 
dication  is  to  be  found,  when  no  encouragement  is  held 
out  that  the  Negro  shall  ever  have  any,  even  the  slightest, 
part  in  the  government  under  which  he  lives,  patriotic 
duty  forbids  that  we  should  be  silent.  When  will  there 
be  any  change — why  should  there  be  any  change — as  long 
as  the  whole  country.  North  as  well  as  South,  acquiesces 
in  the  present  order? 

But  there  is  a  still  deeper  consequence  involved.  If  laws 
can  be  made  and  enforced  which  every  child  knows  were 
intended  to  deprive  and  do  in  fact  deprive  millions  of 
American  citizens  of  the  rights  guaranteed  them  by  the 
Constitution  of  their  country,  it  is  vain  to  call  on  men  to 
reverence  the  law,  and  when  we  swear  to  the  Constitu 
tion  we  swear  to  a  rotten  reed.  "When  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh  shall  He  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?"  That  was  the 
old  prophetic  question.  Not  faith  in  the  mystic  spirit 
ual  sense  but  fides,  good  faith,  common  honesty.  When 

123 


multitudes  of  men  take  an  oath  which  on  their  own  con 
fession  they  have  no  thought  of  keeping,  the  public  con 
science  is  debased  and  the  bond  that  holds  society  to 
gether  is  well  nigh  dissolved.  The  grossest  barbarian 
that  ever  shed  human  blood  to  solemnize  his  oath  has 
had  some  form  of  words  that  would  bind  his  darkened 
conscience,  and  to  break  which  he  counted  as  damnation. 
It  was  left  for  the  nineteenth  Christian  century  to  ex 
hibit  the  spectacle  of  thousands  of  civilized  men  taking 
upon  their  lips  an  oath,  in  the  most  solemn  form  of  their 
religion,  which  they  themselves  publicly  and  shamelessly 
admit  they  never  intended  to  observe.  From  such  a 
position  it  is  but  a  short  step  to  verdicts  on  the  unwritten 
law  and  trial  and  execution  by  the  mob.  When  the 
Constitution  is  defied  it  can  make  no  essential  difference 
whether  that  defiance  is  expressed  in  Tillman's  coarse 
and  brutal  words,  "To  hell  with  the  Constitution,"  or  is 
couched  in  some  honeyed,  euphemistic  phrase  that  ap 
peals  to  Anglo-Saxon  prejudice  and  pride.  In  either 
case  the  thing  is  done. 

It  is  a  fitting  day  for  such  a  subject.  It  has  become 
the  fashion  of  recent  years  to  treat  the  Civil  War  as  noth 
ing  but  a  political  contest,  ignoring  the  tremendous  moral 
issues  that  alone  justified  its  sacrifices.  But  read  Lin 
coln's  second  inaugural,  where  he  spoke  as  the  prophet 
of  his  people  and  uttered  the  deep  secret  of  the  conflict. 
It  will  not  do  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  real  causes  and 
results  of  the  war — especially  now  when  northern  indif 
ference  and  southern  injustice  strike  hands  to  keep  the 
black  race  in  a  new  bondage  as  helpless  and  hopeless  as 
the  old.  As  a  member  of  the  white  race  and  turning  for 
the  moment  to  white  men,  I  say  that  our  race  will  deserve 
any  calamity  the  presence  of  the  black  race  may  bring. 

124 


We  brought  it  here  by  theft  and  force.  We  owed  it 
liberty  and  we  gave  it  a  chain.  We  owe  it  light  and 
we  give  it  darkness.  We  owe  it  opportunity  and  we 
hedge  it  round  with  restraints.  We  owe  it  the  court 
house  and  we  give  it  the  lynching  tree.  We  owe  it  an 
example  of  order  and  self  control;  we  give  it  an  example 
of  lawlessness  and  hate.  We  are  sowing  the  wind  and 
if  we  reap  the  whirlwind  we  shall  have  ourselves  to 
blame. 

The  strong  imagine  they  have  a  mortgage  upon  the 
weak,  but  in  the  world  of  morals  it  is  the  other  way.  We 
complain  that  virtue  and  intelligence  cannot  be  safe  in 
the  neighborhood  of  ignorance  and  vice.  God  means  that 
it  should  be  so.  So  does  he  take  bonds  from  the  mighty 
to  do  justice  by  the  weak.  Shame  on  the  race  that  holds 
in  its  hands  the  wealth  of  the  continent  and  carries  in 
its  brain  the  accumulated  culture  of  the  centuries  and 
yet,  refusing  to  lift  ignorance  and  vice  to  the  level  of 
enlightenment  and  virtue,  makes  that  ignorance  and  vice 
an  excuse  for  the  denial  of  human  rights.  Never  until 
the  white  man  has  spent  his  last  surplus  dollar  and  ex 
hausted  the  last  faculty  of  his  brain  in  the  effort  to  lift 
up  his  weaker  brother — never  until  then  can  he  stand 
in  the  presence  of  infinite  justice  and  complain  of  the 
ignorance  or  the  criminality  of  the  black. 

It  is  really  a  contest  between  caste  and  equality — a 
contest  as  old  as  the  world  and  possibly  as  permanent. 
The  spirit  of  caste  is  nothing  else  than  that  self  worship 
that  is  fostered  and  gratified  when  it  can  look  down  upon 
another.  The  secret  of  caste  is  inordinate  self  love  and 
pride.  It  can  find  no  welcome  in  the  heart  where  the 
Son  of  Man  is  made  at  home.  Underneath  every  politi 
cal  or  social  phase  of  the  subject  lies  the  profounder 


phase  which  makes  it  a  question  of  duty  and  of  true  re 
ligion.  If  we  can  do  nothing  else,  we  can  at  least,  on 
this  day  of  sacred  memories,  purify  our  ideals,  and  test 
our  conduct  by  them.  We  do  not  make  our  ideals,  our 
ideals  make  us.  America  did  not  choose  the  great  doc 
trine  of  equal  rights — that  immortal  truth  chose  America. 
It  has  moulded  her  from  the  beginning ;  it  will  mould  her 
until  the  end ;  or  if  it  cannot  it  will  cast  her  off  with  the 
wreckage  of  the  past  and  take  up  some  other  nation  that 
shall  be  found  worthy. 

There  is  a  power  that  has  been  working  here  from  the 
beginning.  It  is  the  power  that  will  be  working  here 
when  you  and  I  are  gone.  It  is  the  power  whose  pur 
pose  is  that  all  men  shall  be  free.  Various  races  have  at 
various  times  flattered  themselves  that  they  were  a  chosen 
people.  But  if  history  shows  anything  it  shows  that  a 
nation  is  nothing  but  a  tool  in  the  han  1  of  the  Almighty. 
If  it  serves  His  purpose  it  is  used.  If  it  breaks  in  His 
hand  it  is  thrown  away,  and  another  is  chosen  in  its 
stead.  If  this  nation  has  any  mission  it  is  to  make  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  good — that  and  the  three 
great  amendments  to  the  Constitution  which  were  the 
logical  result  of  that  sublime  pledge.  It  is  true  those 
amendments  were  adopted  in  a  glow  of  idealism.  But 
so  was  the  Declaration  itself.  It  is  true  they  have  not 
been  lived  up  to  any  more  than  the  Declaration  was  lived 
up  to  in  the  first  seventy  years  of  the  republic.  But 
now  as  then  and  at  all  other  times  the  test  of  our  institu 
tions,  both  of  their  power  to  last  and  of  their  worthiness 
to  last,  is  simply  and  solely  this :  Do  they  serve  to  keep 
the  rights  of  men  sacred  and  secure? 


Address  of 

John  T.  Milholland 

of  the 

Constitution  League,  New  York 

Frankly  it  must  be  said  the  forces  at  work  for  the 
colored  man's  uplift  in  the  South  are  not  the  prevailing 
forces.  The  sentiment  for  his  just,  equitable  treatment, 
for  the  vindication  of  his  constitutional  rights  as  a  cit 
izen  and  a  man  is  neither  yet  strong  enough  nor  suf 
ficiently  widespread  to  be  compared  for  an  instant  with 
the  Satanic  energies  behind  that  avowed  determination 
to  crush  him  down  again  to  the  low  level  of  physical  as 
well  as  political  slavery.  To  deny  this  is  to  blind  one's 
self  to  the  every  day  evidence  that  has  been  multiplying 
with  cumulative  effect  since  the  surrender  of  Lee  at 
Appomattox. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  value  of  the  Georgia  Railroad 
strike  as  an  illuminant  of  the  situation  cannot  easily  be 
exaggerated.  It  puts  the  whole  case  in  diamond  light, 
revealing  with  the  clearness  of  noonday  the  manifest 
tendency  towards  the  utter  degradation  of  the  Negro 
about  which  we  of  the  Constitution  League  and  other 
disturbed  spirits  have  been  preaching  and  prophesying 
these  many  years. 

Deplorable  as  it  is,  1  welcome  it.  Disgraceful  to  the 
South  that  permits  it;  disgraceful  to  these  northern 


trades  unions  that  have  aided  and  directed  this  latest 
conspiracy  against  the  rights  of  man ;  a  blot  on  the  escutch 
eon  of  our  Republic  and  a  shame  to  modern  civilization; 
nevertheless,  I  for  one,  am  glad  that  it  has  come  to 
pass.  Such  results  were  and  are  inevitable.  Bad  as 
they  are,  worse  will  follow  unless  this  great  nation 
opens  its  eyes  to  the  actualities  that  confront  it  upon 
this  Memorial  day,  this  day  that  brings  back  to  us  those 
momentous  times  that  tried  men's  souls  but  warmed  all 
hearts,  those  rays  of  great  misery  but  of  a  great  hope 
that  have  been  succeeded  so  soon  by  the  days  of  forget- 
f ulness ! 

Conditions,  I  repeat,  desperate  as  they  are  in  the 
South  must  grow  worse  before  they  grow  better.  I 
said  this  years  ago  when  the  Republican  traitors,  leaders 
at  Washington,  aided  by  misguided  zealots  elsewhere,  re 
fused  to  see  anything  very  serious  in  the  failure  of  the 
bill  for  honest  Federal  elections  in  the  South  or  the  de 
feat  of  the  Blair  education  measure — a  calamity  that 
has  cost  the  South  twenty  years  of  genuine  progress ; 
in  the  nullification  by  southern  states  of  the  great  war 
amendments  to  the  Constitution,  those  sublime  declara 
tions  which  represent  the  highwater  mark  of  American 
statesmanship,  the  loftiest  declaration  of  human  rights 
that  has  ever  been  promulgated  by  any  national  law- 
making  assembly  since  the  years  of  jubilee  rang  out 
among  the  hills  of  old  Judea  "proclaiming  liberty 
throughout  the  land  and  to  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

The  Negro's  condition,  I  contend,  in  this  country  is 
growing  worse  every  year.  He  is  standing  on  the  very 
threshold  of  a  physical  slavery  almost  as  bad  and  hope 
less  as  that  from  which  he  was  emancipated  by  one  of 
the  bloodiest  wars  ever  waged  in  Christendom.  Practi 
cally  a  political  serf  in  a  dozen  states,  without  right  to 
vote  or  liberty  to  speak;  trial  by  a  jury  of  his  peers 
denied  him,  and  in  such  imminent  danger  of  lynching 

128 


that  he  lives  under  a  reign  of  terror  as  awful  as  that 
inspired  by  Ku-Klux  depredations  or  the  old  Spanish 
Inquisition — to  talk  about  such  a  man  enjoying  the 
liberty  that  is  supposed  to  be  the  normal  condition  of 
every  American  citizen  is  to  fly  in  the  face  of  truth  and 
proclaim  oneself  incapable  of  observation. 

Passing  the  bloody  massacres  of  the  Reconstruction 
period,  we  have  seen  year  after  year,  for  nearly  two 
decades,  no  less  than  three  citizens  every  week  lynched 
or  burned  or  shot  to  death  without  the  semblance  of 
judicial  procedure  to  ascertain  their  guilt  or  innocence. 
And  yet  these  mob  murders  do  not  reveal  the  worst  of 
it ;  they  only  suggest  the  brutal  tyranny,  the  horrible 
beatings  of  defenseless  men  and  boys,  girls  and  women; 
the  humiliations  of  mind  and  hearts,  sensitive  by  nature 
and  cultivation ;  the  breaking  of  strong  men's  wills  and 
the  unspeakable  degradations  of  mothers  and  daugh 
ters  whose  sons  and  husbands  are  powerless  to  afford 
them  the  protection  that  is  even  denied  them  by  the  law. 

Senator  Tillman  of  South  Carolina  is  not  an  author 
ity  I  quote  but  what  he  says  on  this  point  is  so  thorough 
ly  in  accordance  with  known  facts  as  to  make  this  tes 
timony  relevant  and  of  value.  On  July  20,  1907,  he 
declared  in  the  United  States  Senate:  "Race  hatred 
grows  day  by  day.  There  is  no  man  who  is  honest,  go 
ing  through  the  South  and  conversing  with  the  white 
people  and  blacks,  but  will  return  and  tell  you  this  is 
true.  Then  I  say  to  you  of  the  North  who  are  the 
rulers  of  the  land,  who  can  change  this  or  do  something 
to  relieve  conditions,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it? 
Are  you  going  to  sit  quiet?  If  nothing  else  will  cause 
you  to  think,  I  notify  you,  what  you  already 
know,  that  there  are  a  billion  dollars  or  more  of 
northern  capital  invested  in  the  South  in  railroads,  in 
mines,  in  forests,  in  farm  lands,  and  self  interest,  which 
fact  if  nothing  else,  ought  to  make  you  set  about  hunt- 

129 


ing  some  remedy  for  this  terrible  situation.  Therefore 
we  say  to  you  it  is  your  duty  to  do  something.  It  is 
your  duty  to  move.  It  is  your  duty  to  begin  the  discus 
sion.  For  the  time  being  the  South  is  occupying  an  at 
titude  of  constant  friction,  race  riot,  butchery,  murder 
of  whites  by  blacks  and  blacks  by  whites,  the  inevitable, 
irresponsible  conflict." 

This  is  a  note  different  from  that  usually  sounded  at 
Carnegie  Hall  and  Tremont  Temple,  but  every  man 
familiar  with  the  case  knows  that  the  South  Carolina 
Senator,  in  this  instance  at  least,  speaks  the  truth,  and 
because  it  is  the  truth,  I  think  the  raison  d'etre  of  this 
conference  has  been  sufficiently  established. 


130 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM 

Jenkins  Lloyd  Jones 

of 

Chicago 

The  civilized  world,  with  impressive  unanimity  and 
inspiring  heartiness,  has  just  been  celebrating  the  cen 
tennial  of  the  birth  of  him  who  signed  the  Emancipa 
tion  Proclamation.  When  the  second  centennial  comes 
round  this  document  will  be  more  prized  and  better 
known  than  now.  Many  things  conspire  in  these  days 
to  obscure  the  light  that  should  and  will  emanate  through 
all  time  from  this  glow  point  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States. 

The  character  and  place  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  his 
tory  can  never  be  understood  if  the  title  of  Emancipa 
tor  is  ignored,  evaded  or  minimized.  "Emancipator" 
is  the  key-word  to  the  great  President,  and  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation  is  the  pivotal  point  not  only  in 
the  war  but  in  the  history  of  the  United  States.  We 
ought  all  to  see  it  now,  but  it  took  a  poet's  vision  to 
see  it  then. 

Let  apologists  and  politicians  North  or  South  trace 
the  inspirations  of  the  civil  war  to  petty  and  secondary 
causes,  the  only  adequate  explanation  of  the  acceptance 
of  war  by  the  unwarlike  people  of  the  North  is  found 
in  the  word  "Liberty,"  and  so  far  as  ethical  questions 
can  be  settled  by  war — alas,  how  little  can  be  done  that 


way — the  human  theory  of  the  Negro  was  vindicated. 
It  was  an  awful  price  to  pay,  but  for  myself  I  deem  the 
abolition  of  the  human  auction  block  cheap  at  any  price ; 
much  as  I  hate  war,  I  would  accept  the  bitter  experience 
again  if  the  end  could  not  be  attained  otherwise.  I 
would  march  every  foot  of  the  weary  ground  that  I 
traversed  from  1862  to  1865  for  the  sake  of  knowing  that 
a  slave-mother's  child  could  become  the  guest  of  Eng 
lish  nobility,  the  poet  laureate  of  the  Negro  race,  deserv 
ing  and  receiving  the  praise  that  belongs  to  a  poet,  ir 
respective  of  rank  or  color.  With  prophetic  insight  did 
the  Great  Emancipator  say  of  the  war:  "Yet,  if  God 
wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 
bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited 
toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn 
with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the 
sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it 
must  be  said,  'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether.' ' 

But  alas,  by  what  slow  processes  do  liberty  and  jus 
tice  come  to  their  own  ?  There  has  come  a  recrudescence 
of  the  ethnology  of  slavery  under  the  guise  of  a  super 
ficial  science.  In  many  quarters  a  painful  reaction  has 
come  that  has  silenced  the  voice  of  religion,  confused 
the  problems  at  the  ballot,  and  intimidated  the  one-time 
champions  of  the  despised  race.  We  still  hear  preach 
ers  in  the  pulpit  pleading  for  segregation;  educators  de 
ploring  the  education  of  the  black ;  legislators,  by  down 
right  subterfuge  and  the  tricks  of  circumlocution  which 
only  a  demagogue  can  use,  disfranchising  those  who 
were  enfranchised  by  the  decrees  of  war,  the  acts  of 
Congress,  and  the  signature  of  the  great  emancipator. 

All  this  in  the  face  of  the  cold,  hard  facts  that  prove 
the  colored  man  worthy  the  confidence  placed  in  him 
by  those  who  died  for  his  freedom.  He  has  justified 
the  momentous  signature,  the  holiest  autograph  in  Amer- 

132 


lean  history — that  attached  to  the  Emancipation  Procla 
mation.  In  the  space  of  a  short  half-century,  and  that 
demoralized  by  war,  the  colored  man  is  on  his  way 
towards  the  full  justification  of  the  Thirteenth,  Four 
teenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments  of  the  Constitution. 
The  story  of  his  emancipation  is  outdone  by  the  still 
more  wonderful  story  of  his  education.  Civilization 
offers  no  parallel  to  the  rise  of  the  enslaved  race.  The 
memory  of  Lincoln  has  been  glorified  and  most  splend 
idly  vindicated  by  the  triumph  of  the  black  man. 

Lincoln's  work  cannot  be  undone.  There  is  no  ground 
for  despondency,  but  there  is  for  vigilance.  Timidity, 
racial  prejudice,  pride,  social  cowardice  and  inherited 
bias  still  combine  to  create  lines  where  none  exist,  per 
petrate  prejudices  unjustified,  and  foster  assumptions 
unwarranted  by  science  and  condemned  by  religion. 

The  ante-bellum  cry  was  "Do  not  interfere  with  our 
peculiar  institutions.'-  There  is  a  post-bellum  prattle 
about  southern  problems  being  handled  by  southern  peo 
ple.  This  assembly  should  send  forth  the  note,  far  and 
clear,  that  there  is  no  North  or  South  in  freedom  now, 
any  more  than  was  there  in  '65.  In  times  of  peace,  as 
in  times  of  war,  the  question  of  justice  knows  no  state 
limits.  In  the  eyes  of  enlightened  statesmanship  and 
in  the  eyes  of  God,  the  status  of  the  Negro  in  New 
Orleans  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Negro  in  Chicago. 
He  demands  a  square  deal,  and  only  a  square  deal,  in 
the  one  place  as  in  the  other.  The  Negro  is  a  candi 
date  now  as  always,  North,  South,  here,  everywhere, 
for  all  that  nature  and  human  nature  can  fit  him  for, 
and  all  the  legal  sophistries,  and  legislative  double-deal 
ings  that  breed  injustice  towards  him  are  a  greater  men 
ace  to  the  white  perpetrators  thereof  than  to  the  black 
victims  of  the  same. 

There  are  no  "southern  problems"  that  are  not  na 
tional;  no  "race  problems"  that  are  not  lost  in  human 

133 


problems.  Providence  is  kinder  to  the  oppressed  than 
to  the  oppressor;  the  wronged  than  the  wronger.  The 
rise  of  the  black  man  under  the  inspiration  of  freedom 
is  surely  inevitable,  inspiring.  The  emancipation  of  the 
white  man,  his  former  master  and  his  descendants,  is 
perhaps  a  slower  process;  one  that  awakens  deeper  anx 
iety,  and  the  failure  of  which  is  a  far  greater  menace 
to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  our  nation. 

To  talk  of  a  "southern  problem"  to-day,  as  distin 
guished  from  the  "northern  problem" ;  for  any  section 
of  this  country  to  ask  to  be  let  alone  to  adjust  its  own 
social  affairs,  is  harking  back  to  an  old  regime,  forever 
past.  So  far  as  there  is  a  Negro  problem,  whether  it 
springs  from  the  incapacity  or  depravity  of  black  men 
or  the  narrowness,  arrogance  and  commercial  conceit 
of  the  white  man,  like  Eliza  in  the  story,  it  has  crossed 
the  Ohio  River  on  floating  ice.  Mob  violence,  brutal 
lynchings  and  lawless  panics  appear  in  Illinois  as  in 
South  Carolina;  they  have  disgraced  the  records  of 
courts  and  stained  the  soil  with  blood,  in  Ohio  as  in 
Mississippi.  The  supremacy  of  the  national  government 
and  the  urgency  of  national  education  and  national  leg 
islation,  in  social  as  well  as  commercial  adjustments,  are 
becoming  daily  more  imperious. 

A  limited  suffrage  may  be  good  statesmanship ;  we 
only  demand  that  that  limitation  be  honestly  stated  and 
impartially  enforced.  It  may  be  wise  under  some  con 
ditions  to  separate  white  and  black  children  in  the  schools, 
but  for  the  legislature  of  Kentucky  to  call  upon  the  trus 
tees  of  Berea  to  violate  their  sacred  trust  to  the  dead,  to 
disturb  the  benign  traditions  and  precedents  of  decades, 
and  to  shut  the  doors  of  the  college  against  diligent,  law- 
abiding  and  self-respecting  students  because  of  a  tint 
in  the  skin  and  a  kink  in  the  hair,  though  the  tint  and 
the  kink  be  ameliorated  by  ninety  per  cent,  of  blood 
drawn  from  the  veins  of  the  Kentucky  chivalry  that 

134 


breeds  nothing  meaner  than  "colonels,"  is  an  indignity 
to  justice,  a  violation  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
democracy-  and  the  more  precious  decrees  written  in  the 
blood  of  the  heroes  of  '76  and  of  '61  to  '65. 

We  should  demand  that  the  race  theories  born  of  ig 
norance  and  prejudice  be  revised  by  the  latest  science; 
that  no  illegitimacy  of  parentage  be  allowed  to  interfere 
with  the  divine  legitimacy  of  children;  that  womanhood 
be  protected  by  statute  and  public  sentiment,  whatever 
its  complexion ;  that  virginity  be  held  as  sacred  in  the 
colored  as  the  white  maiden  and  the  violators  thereof  be 
held  with  equal  severity  by  law  and  by  public  sentiment, 
whether  they  be  white  or  black.  We  should  call  for  im 
partial  enforcement  of  statute  rights  of  all  citizens  of 
any  color.  We  protest  against  decreed  distinctions  and 
gradations  of  rights  under  the  Constitution  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  and  declare  there  are  no  privileges  according 
to  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  United  States  vouch 
safed  to  the  black  man  in  Minnesota  that  are  not  de 
creed  in  Louisiana.  These  demands  are  imperative. 
The  situation  is  urgent. 

Out  of  our  dire  disgraces  the  urgent  needs,  the  pathet 
ic  cries  of  the  victims  of  past  tyranny  and  present 
prejudices,  and  the  more  pathetic  fears,  social  anxieties 
and  political  confusions  of  the  white  victims  of  past 
wrongs,  there  must  rise  a  new  movement  that  will  seize 
the  fallen  flag  and  hold  it  aloft  once  more,  bearing  it 
forward  until  the  nation  is  awakened  and  liberty  and 
justice  find  fresh  endorsement,  and  until  community  life 
shall  overreach  sect,  party,  industrial,  or  racial  lines. 
In  this  movement  state  lines  must  fade  in  the  presence 
of  national  inspirations  and  obligations,  and  national 
boundaries  will  sink  out  of  sight  in  the  presence  of  in 
ternational  sympathy  and  confidence. 

It  is  to  help  on  such  a  movement,  is  it  not,  that  we 
are  here? 

135 


IS   THE    SOUTHERN   POSITION 
ANGLO-SAXON? 

John  Spencer  Bassett 

Professor  of   History 
Smith  College 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  attitude  to 
ward  inferiors.  By  observing  the  feelings  on  the  sub 
ject  in  the  places  in  which  the  English  stock  has  ruled 
inferiors  we  may  have  the  general  features  of  this  Anglo- 
Saxon  attitude.  And  when  this  has  been  found  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  southerner  goes  somewhat  further  in 
repression  than  the  Englishman,  and  that  this  surplusage 
is  the  part  of  the  southern  race  antipathy  which  appears 
most  artificial.  It  is  an  outgrowth  of  peculiar  historical 
conditions,  and  we  may  hope  to  lessen  its  intensity. 

Cape  Colony  is  that  British  possession  in  which  con 
ditions  with  reference  to  the  Negro  are  most  like  those 
in  our  southern  states.  In  each  locality  the  Negro  strikes 
the  white  man  in  much  the  same  way.  It  is  the  recoil 
of  the  superior  from  the  inferior.  But  in  Africa  the 
aversion  is  not  solidified  as  in  the  South.  In  one  place 
the  individual  white  man  determines  his  attitude  toward 
the  black  man,  in  the  other  the  community  determines  it, 
and  woe  to  him  who  disputes  the  decision.  In  one  place, 
in  spite  of  a  large  number  who  are  antagonistic  to  Negro 
development  there  are  many  who  seek  to  bring  it  about, 
and  they  are  allowed  to  do  what  they  choose.  In  the 
other  there  is  a  public  opinion  about  the  Negro,  and  its 
dictum  is  final.  In  one  a  Negro  of  great  capacity  may 

136 


rise  out  of  the  sphere  of  inferiority  without  a  great  shock 
to  the  whites  around  him ;  in  the  other  he  may  rise  till 
he  is  esteemed  great  in  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  he 
will  ever  have  "the  place"  of  the  most  inferior  member 
of  his  race  in  the  eyes  of  his  white  neighbors. 

Mr.  Bryce  gives  us  some  good  illustrations  of  the  feel 
ing  in  Cape  Colony.  For  example,  a  gentleman  there 
may  invite  an  educated  Negro  to  dinner,  but  before  doing 
so  he  will  ask  his  white  guests  if  they  object  to  such 
company.  Nor  does  it  happen  that  he  loses  position  in 
society  because  he  has  been  host  to  a  native.  He  is 
eligible  thereafter  as  a  guest  himself  at  the  home  of 
those  who  would  not  accept  his  invitation  under  the  con 
ditions  specified.  The  same  is  true  as  to  intermarriage: 
it  occurs  rarely  and  there  is  no  law  against  it.  Some 
times  a  poor  white  man  will  work  for  a  Negro  who  has 
employment  for  him.  Generally  the  children  of  the  two 
races  attend  separate  schools;  but  it  happens  at  times 
that  poor  white  people  send  their  children  to  schools 
for  blacks  because  the  fees  are  smaller  and  no  one  ob 
jects.  White  people  are  concerned  in  philanthropic  work 
for  blacks,  acting  individually  and  as  churches,  and  by 
so  doing  they  do  not  lose  their  efficiency  in  other  work 
for  and  with  white  people.  Social  relations  with  Negroes 
are  not  desired  by  the  majority  of  the  whites  but  those 
who  oppose  such  relations  do  not  think  the  safety  of  so 
ciety  demands  that  the  advocates  of  other  views  be  held 
as  enemies  of  the  public  good.  On  this  subject  people 
seem  to  think  that  the  best  safety  of  the  public  lies  in 
allowing  a  man  to  believe  as  he  chooses  without  making 
him  pay  any  penalty. 

Now,  I  do  not  say  that  this  is  a  desirable  thing.  It 
may  or  may  not  be  so ;  but  my  present  contention  is  that 
this  is  entirely  unlike  the  position  of  our  South.  And 
since  the  conditions  are  relatively  the  same  in  Jamaica 
and  in  other  British  colonies  in  which  whites  rule  blacks, 

137 


I  think  it  fair  to  say  that  it  stands  for  the  Anglo-Saxon 
attitude  toward  the  Negro.  That  is  to  say,  the  British 
are  unwilling  to  accept  the  inferior  as  an  equal,  but  they 
are  willing  to  try  to  make  him  equal,  and  their  sense  of 
fair  play  tolerates  and  even  applauds  the  successful  ef 
forts  to  raise  him  above  himself.  It  is  a  doctrine  which 
sprang  from  the  English  instinct  of  liberty,  and  it  was 
brought  to  America  by  the  British  founders. 

Thus  it  happened  that  the  Methodist  and  Missionary 
Baptist  churches  became  the  strongest  popular  religious 
organizations  in  the  South,  and  they  so  remained  through 
out  the  eighteenth  century.  Although  others  labored  as 
they  could  these  two  popular  churches  were  particularly 
active  in  work  for  the  Negro.  In  true  Anglo-Saxon 
spirit  they  took  him  into  the  churches  and  in  exceptional 
cases  they  allowed  him  to  preach,  but  they  did  not  give 
him  the  right  to  hold  office.  They  believed,  and  he  ac 
quiesced  in  it,  that  he  was  not  capable  of  directing  the 
affairs  of  the  church.  This  mingling  of  blacks  and 
whites  in  a  field  of  common  concern  was  the  best  guar 
antee  of  mutual  peace  and  sympathy;  and  since  religion 
was  the  sphere  of  mental  activity  at  which  the  white 
man's  ideals  were  most  likely  to  enter  the  Negro's  life, 
this  association  in  the  churches  promised  much  for  the 
future.  When  the  nineteenth  century  began,  and  for 
three  decades  thereafter,  the  whites  had  the  Anglo-Saxon 
attitude  toward  the  Negro.  They  sought  to  develop  him, 
they  recognized  his  inferiority  in  the  mass  while  they 
encouraged  all  efforts  in  the  individual  which  seemed  to 
work  for  his  uplift.  Some  illustrations  of  this  state  of 
affairs  will  show  how  harmonious  the  situation  was  at 
this  time. 

The  position  of  the  southern  churches  at  this  time  has 
its  parallel  in  that  of  some  of  the  leading  public  men. 
Washington  and  many  prominent  Virginians  were  well 
known  for  their  mild  views  of  the  Negro.  In  1791,  Jef- 

138 


ferson,  secretary  of  state,  appointed  a  Negro  mathema 
tician  to  office  in  his  department  because  he  wanted  to  see 
if  a  Negro  would  succeed  in  that  capacity.  His  letter 
to  a  gentleman  in  France  telling  of  the  matter  shows 
that  he  did  not  disapprove  of  Negro  office-holders.  And 
it  was  under  Andrew  Jackson,  the  second  founder  of  the 
Democratic  party,  that  Negroes,  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
were  first  received  at  a  social  function  in  the  White 
House. 

Now  these  incidents  do  not  prove  everything,  but  they 
show  that  public  opinion  in  1791  and  in  1829  was  not 
like  public  opinion  in  the  South  at  present.  All  that  I 
claim  is  that  in  the  first  three  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  Southern  whites  had  the  typical  English  at 
titude  toward  the  Negro.  They  recognized  his  inferiori 
ty,  they  sought  to  secure  his  development,  and  that  pain 
fully  solid  opinion  which  demands  that  white  hands  shall 
never  touch  black  ones  had  not  come  into  existence.  If 
the  problem  of  the  inferior  could  have  been  worked  out 
under  this  gentler  system,  this  conference,  probably, 
would  not  have  been  called.  But  mild  measures  could 
not  be  followed.  To  destroy  slavery  was  of  greater  im 
mediate  importance  than  to  develop  the  Negro.  About 
1830  the  storm  began  which  was  to  secure  emancipation 
and  the  blue  sky  has  been  darkened  ever  since.  It  was 
perhaps  a  necessary  storm,  but  it  has  been  unnecessarily 
prolonged. 

The  controversy  which  was  to  work  so  much  that  was 
good  and  so  much  that  was  not  good  for  the  Negro  was 
at  first  concerned  with  slavery;  since  1865  it  has  been  con 
cerned  with  the  position  of  the  Negro.  The  slavery 
problem  and  the  Negro  problem  are  distinct  by  nature, 
but  in  their  development  in  America  one  ran  into  the 
other.  Northern  men  declared  that  slavery  wronged  the 
Negro  by  taking  from  him  his  inalienable  rights;  south 
ern  men  replied  that  the  Negro  had  no  inalienable  rights 


and  that  slavery  was  the  condition  best  suited  for  his  de 
velopment.  And  it  happened  that  by  a  process  of  ac 
tion  and  reaction  each  side  became  more  emphatic  in  its 
assertions  until  at  last  one  was  declaring  for  Negro  suf 
frage,  thus  ennobling  the  inferior  to  the  position  of  equal 
citizenship,  and  the  other  was  declaring  that  slavery  was 
a  divinely  appointed  institution.  Southern  churches 
which  in  1800  worked  for  the  conversion  of  Negroes  and 
taught  that  slavery  was  an  evil  were  in  1850  teaching  that 
the  African  was  divinely  ordained  to  bondage;  and  the 
most  radical  of  Southerners  were  beginning  to  ask  if  he 
had  any  soul  which  God  was  bound  to  respect.  It  was 
a  conviction  which  did  not  rest  on  failure  in  the  efforts 
to  elevate  him  but  which  grew  out  of  a  heated  condition 
of  the  public  mind  in  the  great  sectional  controversy. 

Then  came  the  war  with  its  failures  and  reconstruc 
tion  with  its  fury.  Whether  we  condemn  or  approve 
Negro  suffrage  which  the  North  forced  on  the  South 
while  it  could,  we  shall  see  that  it  did  not  improve  the 
South's  opinion  of  the  Negro.  From  1830  to  1909  is 
a  long  period.  There  is  not  a  man  living  in  the  South 
to-day  who  remembers  the  time  when  the  Negro  question 
was  not  associated  with  passion.  The  people  there  not 
only  have  forgotten  that  they  ever  planned  and  strove  to 
develop  the  race  in  the  old  English  way,  but  they  have 
difficulty  to  believe  the  historian  when  he  proves  it  from 
their  own  history.  They  have  not  thought  it  possible  to 
return  to  the  former  attitude,  and  yet  what  has  been  done 
can  be  done  again. 

If  we  could  return  to  the  attitude  which  existed  in  the 
days  of  saner  conditions,  the  days  of  Jefferson  and  Wash 
ington,  we  should  not  have  social  intermingling  of  the 
races.  The  difference  between  that  condition  and  the 
present  would  be  in  the  absence  of  friction.  A  white 
man  would  not  hate  a  Negro  because  he  was  a  Negro. 
and  a  black  man  would  not  hate  a  white  man  because  he 

140 


was  white.  We  should  then  lose  that  apprehension,  as 
old  as  slavery,  that  some  day  there  will  come  a  great 
bloody  struggle  between  the  two  hostile  races,  a  struggle 
whose  -great  probability  lies  in  the  habitual  anticipation 
of  it. 

The  North  and  the  South  are  jointly  responsible  for 
the  struggle  which  brought  race  antipathy  to  its  present 
condition;  and  they  have  joint  responsibility  for  its  re 
moval.  The  best  thing  they  can  do  is  to  let  the  fires  go 
out.  But  patience  is  not  our  only  obligation.  There 
ought  also  to  be  wise  and  persistent  effort  for  Negro 
uplift.  And  this  is  a  duty  which  ought  to  fall  on  the 
South  as  well  as  on  the  North.  People  who  are  striving 
to  help  the  Negro  will  not  hate  him.  If  this  conference 
can  suggest  some  means  of  bringing  the  many  efforts 
of  the  North  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  Negro  into 
touch  with  the  southern  whites,  it  will  do  the  best  day's 
work  clone  in  many  a  month  in  the  cause  of  the  black 
man's  progress.  For  example,  if  the  missionary  agencies 
in  a  southern  state  should  hold  a  conference  to  consider 
their  own  work  in  which  they  could  induce  southern 
clergymen  to  take  part,  there  would  be  laid  the  foundation 
of  mutual  understanding  and  good  will,  and  it  would 
result  beneficially  to  all  concerned.  If  such  harmony  can 
be  obtained,  we  shall  be  in  a  fair  way  to  return  to  the  old 
Anglo-Saxon  attitude,  which  sprang  from  English  love 
of  fair  play,  and  which  is  only  obscured  by  events  which 
in  their  nature  are  transitory. 


141 


EVOLUTION  OF  THE  RACE  PROBLEM 

W.   E.    B.    DuBois 

Professor  of  Economics 
Atlanta  University 

Those  who  complain  that  the  Negro  problem  is  al 
ways  with  us  and  apparently  insoluble  must  not  forget 
that  under  this  vague  and  general  designation  are  gath 
ered  many  social  problems  and  many  phases  of  the  same 
problem;  that  these  problems  and  phases  have  passed 
through  a  great  evolutionary  circle  and  that  to-day  es 
pecially  one  may  clearly  see  a  repetition,  vaster  but  simi 
lar,  of  the  great  cycle  of  the  past. 

That  problem  of  the  past,  so  far  as  the  black  American 
was  concerned,  began  with  caste — a  definite  place  preor 
dained  in  custom,  law  and  religion  where  all  men  of  black 
blood  must  be  thrust.  To  be  sure,  this  caste  idea  as  ap 
plied  to  blacks  was  no  sudden,  full  grown  conception,  for 
the  enslavement  of  the  workers  was  an  idea  which  Ameri 
ca  inherited  from  Europe  and  was  not  synonymous  for 
many  years  with  the  enslavement  of  the  blacks,  although 
the  blacks  were  the  chief  workers.  Men  came  to  the 
idea  of  exclusive  black  slavery  by  gradually  enslaving 
the  workers,  as  was  the  world's  long  custom,  and  then 
gradually  conceiving  certain  sorts  of  work  and  certain 
colors  of  men  as  necessarily  connected.  It  was,  when 
once  set  up  definitely  in  the  southern  slave  system,  a 

142 


logically  cohering  whole  which  the  simplest  social  philo 
sopher  could  easily  grasp  and  state.  The  difficulty  was 
it  was  too  simple  to  be  either  just  or  true.  Human  na 
ture  is  not  simple  and  any  classification  that  roughly  di 
vides  men  into  good  and  bad,  superior  and  inferior,  slave 
and  free,  is  and  must  ever  be  ludicrously  untrue  and  uni 
versally  dangerous  as  a  permanent  exhaustive  classifica 
tion.  So  in  the  southern  slave  system  the  thing  that  from 
the  first  damned  it  was  the  free  Negro — the  Negro  legal 
ly  free,  the  Negro  economically  free  and  the  Negro  spir 
itually  free. 

How  was  the  Negro  to  be  treated  and  conceived  of  who 
was  legally  free?  At  first  with  perfect  naturalness  he  was 
treated  as  a  man — he  voted  in  Massachusetts  and  in  South 
Carolina,  in  New  York  and  Virginia ;  he  intermarried  with 
black  and  white,  he  claimed  and  received  his  civil  rights — 
all  this  until  the  caste  of  color  was  so  turned  as  to  corre 
spond  with  the  caste  of  work  and  enslave  not  only  slaves 
but  black  men  who  were  not  slaves.  Even  this  system, 
however,  was  unable  to  ensure  complete  economic  de 
pendence  on  the  part  of  all  black  men;  there  were  con 
tinually  artisans,  foremen  and  skilled  servants  who  be 
came  economically  too  valuable  to  be  slaves.  In  vain 
were  laws  hurled  at  Negro  intelligence  and  responsibili 
ty;  black  men  continued  to  hire  their  time  and  to  steal 
some  smattering  of  knowledge,  and  it  was  this  fact  that 
became  the  gravest  menace  to  the  slave  system.  But 
even  legal  and  economic  freedom  was  not  so  dangerous 
to  slavery  as  the  free  spirit  which  continually  cropped  out 
among  men  fated  to  be  slaves :  they  thought,  they  dreamed, 
they  aspired,  they  resisted.  In  vain  were  they  beaten, 
sold  south  and  killed,  the  ranks  were  continually  filled 
with  others  and  they  either  led  revolt  at  home  or  ran 
away  to  the  North,  and  these  by  showing  their  human 
qualities  continually  gave  the  lie  to  the  slave  assumption. 
Thus  it  was  the  free  Negro  in  these  manifold  phases 

143 


of  his  appearance  who  hastened  the  economic  crisis  which 
killed  slavery  and  who  made  it  impossible  to  make  the 
caste  of  work  and  the  caste  of  color  correspond,  and 
who  became  at  once  the  promise  and  excuse  of  those 
who  forced  the  critical  revolution. 

To-day  in  larger  cycle  and  more  intricate  detail  we 
are  passing  through  certain  phases  of  a  similar  evolu 
tion.  To-day  we  have  the  caste  idea — again  not  a  sud 
den  full  grown  conception  but  one  being  insidiously  but 
consciously  and  persistently  pressed  upon  the  nation.  The 
steps  toward  it  which  are  being  taken  are:  first,  political 
disfranchisement,  then  vocational  education  with  the  dis 
tinct  idea  of  narrowing  to  the  uttermost  the  vocations 
in  view,  and  finally  a  curtailment  of  civil  freedom  of 
travel,  association,  and  entertainment,  in  systematic  ef 
fort  to  instill  contempt  and  kill  self-respect. 

Here  then  is  the  new  slavery  of  black  men  in  America 
— a  new  attempt  to  make  degradation  of  social  condition 
correspond  with  certain  physical  characteristics — not  to 
be  sure  fully  realized  as  yet,  and  probably  unable  for 
reasons  of  social  development  ever  to  become  as  systema 
tized  as  the  economic  and  physical  slavery  of  the  past— 
and  yet  realized  to  an  extent  almost  unbelievable  by  those 
who  have  not  taken  the  pains  to  study  the  facts — to  an 
extent  which  makes  the  lives  of  thinking  black  men  in  this 
land  a  perpetual  martyrdom. 

But  right  here  as  in  the  past  stands  in  the  path  of  this 
idea  the  figure  of  this  same  thinking  black  man — this  new 
freedman.  This  freedman  again  as  in  the  past  presents 
himself  as  free  in  varying  phases :  there  is  the  free  black 
voter  of  the  North  and  border  states  whose  power  is  far 
more  tremendous  than  even  he  dare  think  so  that  he  is 
afraid  to  use  it;  there  is  the  black  man  who  has  accom 
plished  economic  freedom  and  who  by  working  himself 
into  the  vast  industrial  development  of  the  nation  is  to 
day  accumulating  property  at  a  rate  that  is  simply  as- 

144 


tonnding.  And  finally  tnere  is  the  small  but  growing 
number  of  black  men  emerging  into  spiritual  freedom  and 
becoming  participators  and  freemen  of  the  kingdom  of 
culture  around  which  it  is  so  singularly  difficult  to  set 
metes  and  bounds,  and  who  in  art,  science  and  literature 
are  making  their  modest  but  ineffaceable  mark. 

The  question  is  what  is  the  significance  of  this  group 
of  men  for  the  future  of  the  caste  programme  and  for 
the  future  social  development  of  America?  In  order  to 
answer  this  question  intelligently  let  us  retrace  our  steps 
and  follow  more  carefully  the  details  of  the  proposed 
programme  of  renewed  caste  in  America.  This  pro 
gramme  when  one  comes  to  define  and  state  it  is  elusive. 
There  are  even  those  who  deny  its  existence  as  a  defi 
nite  consciously  conceived  plan  of  action.  But,  certain 
it  is,  there  is  growing  unanimity  of  a  peculiar  sort  on  cer 
tain  matters.  And  this  unanimity  is  centering  about 
three  propositions : 

1.  That  it  was  a  mistake  to  give  Negroes  the  ballot. 

2.  That  Negroes  are  essentially  an  inferior  race. 

3.  That  the  only  permanent  settlement  of  the  race  prob 
lem  will  be  open  and  legal  recognition  of  this  inferiority. 

When  now  a  modern  nation  condemns  ten  million  of 
its  fellows  to  such  a  fate  it  would  be  supposed  that  this 
conclusion  has  been  reluctantly  forced  upon  them  after 
a  careful  study  and  weighing  of  the  facts.  This,  how 
ever,  is  not  the  case  in  the  Negro  problem.  On  the 
contrary  there  has  been  manifest  a  singular  reluctance 
and  indisposition  carefully  to  study  the  Negro  problem. 
Ask  the  average  American :  Why  should  the  ballot  have 
been  withheld  from  the  Negro,  and  he  will  answer:  "Re- 
cause  he  wasn't  fit  for  it."  But  that  is  not  a  sufficient 
answer :  first,  because  few  newly  enfranchised  groups  of 
the  most  successful  democracies  have  been  fit  for  the 
ballot  when  it  was  first  given,  and  secondly,  because 
there  were  Negroes  in  the  United  States  fit  for  the  ballot 

145 


in  1870.  Moreover  the  political  philosophy  that  con 
demns  out  of  hand  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  does  not 
often  stop  to  think  that  the  problem  before  the  American 
nation  1865-1870  was  not  a  simple  problem  of  fixing  the 
qualifications  of  voters.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  the  im 
mensely  more  complicated  problem  of  enforcing  a  vast 
social  and  economic  revolution  on  a  people  determined 
not  to  submit  to  it.  Whenever  a  moral  reform  is  forced 
on  a  people  from  without  there  ensue  complicated  and 
tremendous  problems,  whether  that  reform  is  the  cor 
rection  of  the  abuse  of  alcohol,  the  abolition  of  child 
labor  or  the  emancipation  of  slaves.  The  enforcement  of 
such  a  reform  will  strain  every  nerve  of  the  nation  and 
the  real  question  is  not :  Is  it  a  good  thing  to  strain  the 
framework  of  the  nation  but  rather:  Is  slavery  so  dan 
gerous  a  thing  that  sudden  enfranchisement  of  the  ex- 
slaves  is  too  great  a  price  to  pay  for  its  abolition? 

To  be  sure  there  are  those  who  profess  to  think  that 
the  white  South  of  its  own  initiative  after  the  war,  with 
the  whole  of  the  wealth,  intelligence  and  law-making  pow 
er  in  its  hands,  would  have  freely  emancipated  its  slaves 
in  obedience  to  a  decree  from  Washington,  just  as  there 
are  those  who  would  entrust  the  regulation  of  the  whis 
key  traffic  to  salo<::i  keepers  and  the  bettering  of  the 
conditions  of  child  labor  to  the  employers.  It  is  no 
attack  on  the  South  or  on  saloon  keepers  or  on  employ 
ers  to  say  that  such  a  reform  from  such  a  source  is  un 
thinkable.  It  is  simply  human  nature  that  men  trained 
to  a  social  system  or  condition  should  be  the  last  to  be 
entirely  entrusted  with  its  reformation.  It  was,  then,  not 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  but  the  Fifteenth  Amend 
ment  that  made  slavery  impossible  in  the  United  States 
and  those  that  object  to  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  have 
simply  this  question  to  answer :  Which  was  best,  slavery 
or  ignorant  Negro  voters?  The  answer  is  clear  as  day: 
Negro  voters  never  did  anything  as  bad  as  slavery.  If 

146 


they  were  guilty  of  all  the  crimes  charged  to  them  by  the 
wildest  enemies,  even  then  what  they  did  was  less  dan 
gerous,  less  evil  and  less  cruel  than  the  system  of  slavery 
whose  death  knell  they  struck.  And  when  in  addition 
to  this  we  remember  that  the  black  voters  of  the  South 
established  the  public  schools,  gave  the  poor  whites  the 
ballot,  modernized  the  penal  code  and  put  on  the  statute 
books  of  the  South  page  after  page  of  legislation  that 
still  stands  to-day — when  we  remember  this,  we  have  a 
right  to  conclude  that  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  a 
wise  and  far-sighted  piece  of  statesmanship. 

But  to-day  the  men  who  oppose  the  right  of  Negroes 
to  vote  are  no  longer  doing  so  on  the  ground  of  ignor 
ance,  and  with  good  reason,  for  to-day  a  majority  and  an 
appreciable  majority  of  the  black  men  of  the  South  twen 
ty-one  years  of  age  and  over  can  read  and  write.  In 
other  words,  the  bottom  has  been  clean  knocked  out  of 
their  ignorance  argument  and  yet  the  fact  has  elicited 
scarcely  a  loud  remark. 

Indeed  we  black  men  are  continually  puzzled  by  the 
easy  almost  unconscious  way  in  which  our  detractors 
change  their  ground.  Before  emancipation  it  was  stated 
and  reiterated  with  bitter  emphasis  and  absolute  confi 
dence  that  a  free  Negro  would  prove  to  be  a  shiftless 
scamp,  a  barbarian  and  a  cannibal  reverting  to  savagery 
and  doomed  to  death.  We  forget  to-day  that  from  1830 
to  1860  there  was  not  a  statement  made  by  the  masters 
of  slaves  more  often  reiterated  than  this,  and  more  dog 
matically  and  absolutely  stated.  After  emancipation,  for 
twenty  years  and  more,  so  many  people  looked  for  the 
fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  that  many  actually  saw  it 
and  we  heard  and  kept  hearing  and  now  and  then  still 
hear  that  the  Negro  to-day  is  worse  off  than  in  slavery 
days.  Then,  as  this  statement  grew  less  and  less  plausi 
ble,  its  place  came  to  be  taken  by  other  assumptions. 
When  a  Louisiana  senator  saw  the  first  Negro  school  he 

147 


stopped  and  said:  "This  is  the  climax  of  foolishness!" 
The  Negro  could  not  be  educated — he  could  imitate  like 
a  parrot  but  real  mental  development  was  impossible. 

Then,  when  Negroes  did  learn  some  things,  it  was  said 
that  education  spoiled  them;  they  can  learn  but  it  docs 
them  no  practical  good ;  the  young  educated  Negroes  be 
come  criminals — they  neither  save  nor  work,  they  are 
shiftless  and  lazy.  Now  to-day  are  coming  uncomforta 
ble  facts  for  this  theory.  The  generation  now  working 
and  saving  is  post-bellum  and  yet  no  sooner  does  it  come 
on  the  stage  than  accumulated  property  goes  on  at  an 
accelerated  pace  so  far  as  we  have  measurements.  In 
Georgia  the  increase  of  property  among  Negroes  in  the 
last  ten  years  has  been  83%.  But  no  sooner  do  facts 
like  these  come  to  the  fore  than  again  the  ground  of  op 
position  subtly  shifts  and  this  last  shifting  has  been  so 
gradual  and  so  insidious  that  the  Negro  and  his  friends 
are  still  answering  arguments  that  are  no  longer  being 
pushed.  The  most  subtle  enemies  of  democracy  and 
the  most  persistent  advocates  of  the  color  line  admit  al 
most  contemptuously  most  that  their  forebears  strenu 
ously  denied :  the  Negroes  have  progressed  since  slavery, 
they  are  accumulating  some  property,  some  of  them  work 
readily  and  they  are  susceptible  of  elementary  training; 
but,  they  say,  all  thought  of  treating  black  men  like  white 
men  must  be  abandoned.  They  are  an  inferior  stock  of 
men,  limited  in  attainment  by  nature.  You  cannot  legis 
late  against  nature,  and  philanthropy  is  powerless  against 
deficient  cerebral  development. 

To  realize  the  full  weight  of  this  argument  recall  to 
mind  a  character  like  John  Brown  and  contrast  his  atti 
tude  with  the  attitude  of  to-day.  John  Brown  loved  his 
neighbor  as  himself.  He  could  not  endure,  therefore,  to 
see  his  neighbor  poor,  unfortunate  or  oppressed.  This 
natural  sympathy  was  strengthened  by  a  saturation  in 
Hebrew  religion  which  stressed  the  personal  respon- 

148 


sibility  of  every  man's  soul  to  a  just  God.  To  this  re 
ligion  of  equality  and  sympathy  with  misfortune,  was 
added  the  strong  influence  of  the  social  doctrines  of  the 
French  Revolution  with  its  emphasis  on  freedom  and 
power  in  political  life.  And  on  all  this  was  built  John 
Brown's  own  inchoate  but  growing  belief  in  a  juster  and 
more  equal  distribution  of  property.  From  all  this  John 
Brown  concluded — and  acted  on  that  conclusion — that  all 
men  were  created  free  and  equal  and  that  the  cost  of 
liberty  was  less  than  the  price  of  repression.  Up  to  the 
time  of  John  Brown's  death  this  doctrine  was  a  growing, 
conquering  social  thing.  Since  then  there  has  come  a 
change  and  many  would  rightly  find  reason  for  that 
change  in  the  coincidence  that  the  year  John  Brown 
suffered  martyrdom  was  the  year  that  first  published  the 
Origin  of  Species.  Since  that  day  tremendous  scientific 
and  economic  advance  has  been  accompanied  by  distinct 
signs  of  moral  change  in  social  philosophy;  strong  argu 
ments  have  been  made  for  the  fostering  of  war,  the  social 
utility  of  human  degradation  and  disease,  and  the  in 
evitable  and  known  inferiority  of  certain  classes  and 
races  of  men.  While  such  arguments  have  not  stopped 
the  efforts  of  the  advocates  of  peace,  the  workers  for 
social  uplift  and  the  believers  in  human  brotherhood,  they 
have,  it  must  be  confessed,  often  made  their  voices  falter 
and  tinged  their  arguments  with  apology. 

Why  is  this  ?  It  is  because  the  splendid  scientific  work 
of  Darwin,  Weissman,  Galton  and  others  has  been  wide 
ly  and  popularly  interpreted  as  meaning  that  there  is 
such  essential  and  inevitable  inequality  among  men  and 
races  of  men  as  no  philanthropy  can  or  ought  to  elimi 
nate  ;  that  civilization  is  a  struggle  for  existence  whereby 
the  weaker  nations  and  individuals  will  gradually  suc 
cumb  and  the  strong  will  inherit  the  earth.  With  this 
interpretation  has  gone  the  silent  assumption  that  the 
white  European  stock  represents  the  strong  surviving  peo- 

149 


pies  and  that  the  swarthy,  yellow  and  black  peoples  are 
the  ones  rightly  doomed  to  eventual  extinction. 

One  can  easily  see  what  influence  such  a  doctrine  would 
have  on  the  race  problem  in  America.  It  meant  moral 
revolution  in  the  attitude  of  the  nation.  Those  that 
stepped  into  the  pathway  marked  by  the  early  abolition 
ists  faltered  and  large  numbers  turned  back.  They  said  : 
They  were  good  men — even  great,  but  they  have  no  mes 
sage  for  us  to-day — John  Brown  was  a  "belated  cove 
nanter,"  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  an  anachronism  in 
the  age  of  Darwin — men  who  gave  their  lives  to  lift  not 
the  unlifted  but  the  unlif table.  We  have,  consequently, 
the  present  reaction — a  reaction  which  says  in  effect :  Keep 
these  black  people  in  their  places,  and  do  not  attempt  to 
treat  a  Negro  simply  as  a  white  man  with  a  black  face ; 
to  do  this  would  mean  moral  deterioration  of  the  race 
and  nation — a  fate  against  which  a  divine  racial  preju 
dice  is  successfully  fighting.  This  is  the  attitude  of  the 
larger  portion  of  the  thinking  nation  to-day. 

It  is  not,  however,  an  attitude  that  has  brought  mental 
rest  or  social  peace.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  to-day  involv 
ing  a  degree  of  moral  strain  and  political  and  social 
anomaly  that  gives  the  wisest  pause.  The  chief  difficul 
ty  has  been  that  the  natural  place  in  which,  by  scientific 
law,  the  black  race  in  America  should  stay  cannot  easily 
be  determined.  To  be  sure,  the  freedmen  did  not,  as  the 
philanthropists  of  the  sixties  apparently  expected,  step  in 
forty  years  from  slavery  to  nineteenth  century  civiliza 
tion.  Neither,  on  the  other  hand,  did  they,  as  the  ex- 
masters  confidently  predicted,  retrograde  and  die.  Con 
trary  to  both  these  views,  they  chose  a  third  and  appar 
ently  quite  unawaited  way:  from  the  great,  sluggish,  al 
most  imperceptibly  moving  mass  they  sent  off  larger  and 
larger  numbers  of  faithful  workmen  and  artisans,  some 
merchants  and  professional  men,  and  even  men  of  educa 
tional  ability  and  discernment.  They  developed  in  a 

150 


generation  no  world  geniuses,  no  millionaires,  no  captains 
of  industry,  no  artists  of  first  rank ;  but  they  did  in  forty 
years  get  rid  of  the  larger  part  of  their  illiteracy,  accu 
mulate  a  half  billion  of  property  in  small  homesteads  and 
gained  now  and  then  respectful  attention  in  the  world's 
ears  and  eyes.  It  has  been  argued  that  this  progress  of 
the  black  man  in  America  is  due  to  the  exceptional  men 
among  them  and  does  not  measure  the  ability  of  the  mass. 
Such  admission  is,  however,  fatal  to  the  whole  argument. 
If  the  doomed  races  of  men  are  going  to  develop  excep 
tions  to  the  rule  of  inferiority  then  no  law,  scientific  or 
moral,  should  or  can  proscribe  the  race  as  such. 

To  meet  this  difficulty  in  racial  philosophy  a  step  has 
been  taken  in  America  fraught  with  the  gravest  social 
consequences  to  the  world  and  threatening  not  simply  the 
political  but  the  moral  integrity  of  the  nation :  that  step 
is  to  deny  in  the  case  of  black  men  the  validity  of  those 
evidences  of  culture,  ability  and  decency  which  are  ac 
cepted  unquestioningly  in  the  case  of  other  people,  and 
by  vague  assertion,  improvable  assumption,  unjust  empha 
sis,  and  now  and  then  by  deliberate  untruth,  to  secure  not 
only  the  continued  proscription  of  these  people,  but  by 
caste  distinction  to  shut  in  the  faces  of  their  rising  classes 
many  of  the  paths  to  further  advance. 

When  a  social  policy  based  on  a  supposed  scientific 
sanction  leads  to  such  a  moral  anomaly  it  is  time  to  ex 
amine  rather  carefully  the  logical  foundations  of  the 
argument.  And  so  soon  as  we  do  this  many  things 
are  clear.  First,  assuming  that  there  are  certain  stocks 
of  human  beings  whose  elimination  the  best  welfare  of 
the  world  demands;  it  is  certainly  questionable  if  these 
stocks  include  the  majority  of  mankind  and  it  is  inde 
fensible  and  monstrous  to  pretend  that  we  know  to-day 
with  any  reasonable  certainty  which  these  stocks  are. 
We  can  point  to  degenerate  individuals  and  families  here 
and  there  among  all  races,  but  there  is  not  the  slightest 


warrant  for  assuming  that  there  do  not  exist  among 
the  Chinese  and  Hindus,  the  African  Bantus  and  Ameri 
can  Indians  as  lofty  possibilities  of  human  culture  as 
any  European  race  has  ever  exhibited.  It  is,  to  be  sure, 
puzzling  to  know  why  the  Soudan  should  linger  a  thou 
sand  years  in  culture  behind  the  valley  of  the  Seine,  but 
it  is  no  more  puzzling  than  the  fact  that  the  valley  of 
the  Thames  was  miserably  backward  as  compared  with 
the  banks  of  the  Tiber.  Climate,  human  contact,  facili 
ties  of  communication,  and  what  we  call  accident  have 
played  great  part  in  the  rise  of  culture  among  nations: 
to  ignore  these  and  to  assert  dogmatically  that  the  pres 
ent  distribution  of  culture  is  a  fair  index  of  the  distri 
bution  of  human  ability  and  desert  is  to  make  an  asser 
tion  for  which  there  is  not  the  slightest  scientific  war 
rant. 

What  the  age  of  Darwin  has  done  is  to  add  to  the 
eighteenth  century  idea  of  individual  worth  the  comple 
mentary  idea  of  physical  immortality  of  the  human  race. 
And  this,  far  from  annulling  or  contracting  the  idea  of 
human  freedom,  rather  emphasizes  its  necessity  and  eter 
nal  possibility — the  boundlessness  and  endlessness  of  pos 
sible  human  achievement.  Freedom  has  come  to  mean 
not  individual  caprice  or  aberration  but  social  self-reali 
zation  in  an  endless  chain  of  selves,  and  freedom  for  such 
development  is  not  the  denial  but  the  central  assertion 
of  the  evolutionary  theory.  So,  too,  the  doctrine  of 
human  equality  passes  through  the  fire  of  scientific  in 
quiry  not  obliterated  but  transfigured;  not  equality  of 
present  attainment  but  equality  of  opportunity  for  un 
bounded  future  attainment  is  the  rightful  demand  of 
mankind. 

What  now  does  the  present  hegemony  of  the  white 
races  threaten?  It  threatens  by  the  means  of  brute  force 
a  survival  of  some  of  the  worst  stocks  of  mankind.  It 
attempts  to  people  the  best  part  of  the  earth  and  put  in 

152 


absolute  authority  over  the  rest  not  only,  and  indeed 
not  mainly,  the  culture  of  Europe,  but  its  greed  and  de 
gradation — not  only  some  representatives  of  the  best 
stocks  of  the  west  end  of  London,  upper  New  York  and 
the  Champs  Elysees  but  also,  and  in  as  large,  if  not  lar 
ger,  numbers,  the  worst  stocks  of  Whitechapel,  the  East 
Side  and  Montmartre ;  and  it  attempts  to  make  the  slums 
of  white  society  in  all  cases  and  under  all  circumstances 
the  superior  of  any  colored  group,  no  matter  what  its 
ability  or  culture;  it  attempts  to  put  the  intelligent, 
property  holding,  efficient  Negroes  of  the  South  under 
the  heels  and  at  the  absolute  mercy  of  such  constituencies 
as  Tillman,  Vardaman  and  Jeff  Davis  represent. 

To  be  sure,  this  outrageous  programme  of  wholesale 
human  degeneration  is  not  outspoken  yet  save  in  the 
backward  civilizations  of  the  southern  United  States, 
South  Africa  and  Australia.  But  its  enunciation  is  lis 
tened  to  with  respect  and  tolerance  in  England,  Germany 
and  the  northern  states  and  nowhere  with  more  equani 
mity  than  right  here  in  New  York  by  those  very  per 
sons  who  accuse  philanthropy  with  seeking  to  degenerate 
white  blood  by  an  infiltration  of  colored  strains.  And 
the  average  citizen  is  voting  ships  and  guns  to  carry  out 
this  programme. 

This  movement  gathered  force  and  strength  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  reached  its  cul 
mination  when  France,  Germany  and  England  and  Rus 
sia  began  the  partition  of  China  and  the  East.  With 
the  sudden  self-assertion  of  Japan  its  wildest  dreams  col 
lapsed,  but  it  is  still  to-day  a  living,  virile,  potent  force 
and  motive,  and  the  most  subtle  and  dangerous  enemy  of 
world  peace  and  the  dream  of  human  brotherhood.  It 
has  a  whole  vocabulary  of  its  own :  the  strong  races, 
superior  peoples,  race  preservation,  the  struggle  for  sur 
vival  and  a  peculiar  use  of  the  word  "white."  And  by 
this  it  means  the  right  of  white  men  of  any  kind  to  club 


blacks  into  submission,  to  make  them  surrender  their 
wealth  and  the  use  of  their  women,  and  to  submit  to  the 
dictation  of  white  men  without  murmur,  for  the  sake  of 
being  swept  off  the  fairest  portions  of  the  earth  or  held 
there  in  perpetual  serfdom  or  guardianship.  Ignoring 
the  fact  that  the  era  of  physical  struggle  for  survival  has 
passed  away  among  human  beings  and  that  there  is  plenty 
of  room  accessible  on  earth  for  all,  this  theory  makes  the 
possession  of  Krupp  guns  the  main  criterion  of  mental 
stamina  and  moral  fitness. 

Even  armed  with  this  morality  of  the  club  and  every 
advantage  of  modern  culture,  the  white  races  have  been 
unable  to  possess  the  earth ;  many  signs  of  degeneracy 
have  appeared  among  them ;  their  birthrate  is  falling,  their 
average  ability  is  not  increasing,  their  physical  stamina 
is  impaired,  their  social  condition  is  'not  reassuring,  and 
their  religion  is  a  growing  mass  of  transparent  and  self- 
confessed  hypocrisy.  Lacking  the  physical  ability  to 
take  possession  of  the  world,  they  are  to-day  fencing  in 
America,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  and  declaring  that 
no  dark  race  shall  occupy  or  develop  the  land  which 
they  themselves  are  unable  to  use.  And  all  this  on  the 
plea  that  their  stock  is  threatened  with  deterioration  from 
without,  when  in  fact  its  most  dangerous  fate  is  deterior 
ation  from  within.  We  are  in  fact  to-day  repeating  in 
our  intercourse  between  races  all  the  former  evils  of 
class  injustice,  unequal  taxation  and  rigid  caste.  In 
dividual  nations  outgrew  these  fatal  things  by  breaking 
down  the  horizontal  barriers  between  classes.  We  are 
bringing  them  back  by  seeking  to  erect  vertical  barriers 
between  races.  Men  were  told  that  abolition  of  com 
pulsory  class  distinction  meant  leveling  down,  degrada 
tion,  disappearance  of  culture  and  genius,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  mob.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  has  been  the  salva 
tion  of  European  civilization.  Some  deterioration  and 
leveling  there  was,  but  it  was  more  than  balanced  by  the 

i54 


discovery  of  new  reservoirs  of  ability  and  strength.  So 
to-day  we  are  told  that  free  racial  contact — or  "social 
equality"  as  southern  patois  has  it — means  contamination 
of  blood  and  lowering  of  ability  and  culture.  It  need 
mean  nothing  of  the  sort.  Abolition  of  class  distinction 
does  not  mean  universal  intermarriage  of  stocks,  but 
rather  the  survival  of  the  fittest  by  peaceful  personal  and 
social  selection,  a  selection  all  the  more  effective  because 
free  democracy  and  equality  of  opportunity  allow  the 
best  to  rise  to  their  rightful  place. 

The  same  is  true  in  racial  contact.  The  abolition  of 
the  lines  of  vertical  race  distinction  and  their  tearing  away 
involves  fewer  chances  of  degradation  and  greater  op 
portunities  of  human  betterment  than  in  the  case  of  class 
lines.  On  the  other  hand,  the  persistence  in  racial  dis 
tinctions  spells  disaster  sooner  or  later.  The  earth  is 
growing  smaller  and  more  accessible.  Race  contact  will 
become  in  the  future  increasingly  inevitable,  not  only  in 
America,  Asia  and  Africa,  but  even  in  Europe.  The 
color  line  will  mean  not  simply  a  return  to  the  absurdi 
ties  of  class  as  exhibited  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  but  even  to  the  caste  of  ancient  days.  This, 
however,  the  Japanese,  the  Chinese,  the  East  Indian  and 
the  Negroes  are  going  to  resent  in  just  such  proportion 
as  they  gain  the  power;  and  they  are  gaining  the  power, 
and  they  cannot  be  kept  from  gaining  more  power.  The 
price  of  repression  will  then  be  hypocrisy  and  slavery  and 
blood. 

This  is  the  problem  of  to-day,  and  what  is  its  mighty 
answer?  It  is  this  great  word:  The  cost  of  liberty  is 
less  than  the  price  of  repression.  The  price  of  repress 
ing  the  world's  darker  races  is  shown  in  a  moral  retro 
gression  and  economic  waste  unparalleled  since  the  age 
of  the  African  slave  trade.  What  would  be  the  cost  of 
liberty?  What  would  be  the  cost  of  giving  the  great 
stocks  of  mankind  every  reasonable  help  and  incentive 


to  self-development — opening  the  avenues  of  opportunity 
freely,  spreading  knowledge,  suppressing  war  and  cheat 
ing,  and  treating  men  and  women  as  equals  the  world 
over  whenever  and  wherever  they  attain  equality?  It 
would  cost  something.  It  would  cost  something  in  pride 
and  prejudice,  for  eventually  many  a  white  man  would 
be  blacking  black  men's  boots;  but  this  cost  we  may  ig 
nore — its  greatest  cost  would  be  the  new  problems  of 
racial  intercourse  and  intermarriage  which  would  come 
to  the  front.  Freedom  and  equal  opportunity  in  this  re 
spect  would  inevitably  bring  some  intermarriage  of 
whites  and  yellows  and  browns  and  blacks.  If  such 
marriages  are  proven  inadvisable  how  could  they  be 
stopped?  Easily.  We  associate  with  cats  and  cows  but 
we  do  not  fear  intermarriage  with  them  even  though  they 
be  given  all  freedom  of  development.  So,  too,  intelligent 
human  beings  can  be  trained  to  breed  intelligently  with 
out  the  degradation  of  such  of  their  fellows  as  they  may 
not  wish  to  breed  with.  In  the  southern  United  States 
on  the  contrary  it  is  assumed  that  unwise  marriage  can 
only  be  stopped  by  the  degradation  of  the  blacks,  the 
classing  of  their  women  with  prostitutes,  the  loading  the 
whole  race  with  every  badge  of  public  isolation,  degrada 
tion  and  contempt  and  by  burning  offenders  at  the  stake. 
Is  this  civilization?  No.  The  civilized  method  of 
preventing  ill-advised  marriage  lies  in  the  training  of 
mankind  in  ethics  of  sex  and  childbearing.  We  cannot 
ensure  the  survival  of  the  best  blood  by  the  public  mur 
der  and  degradation  of  unworthy  suitors,  but  we  can 
substitute  a  civilized  human  selection  of  husbands  and 
wives  which  shall  ensure  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Not 
the  methods  of  the  jungle,  not  even  the  careless  choices 
of  the  drawing  room,  but  the  thoughtful  selection  of  the 
schools  and  laboratory  is  the  ideal  of  future  marriage. 
This  will  cost  something  in  ingenuity,  self-control,  and 
toleration  but  it  will  cost  less  than  forcible  repression. 

156 


Not  only  is  the  cost  of  repression  to-day  large — it  is 
a  continually  increasing  cost,  because  of  the  fact  that 
furnished  the  fatal  moral  anomaly  against  which  physical 
slavery  could  not  stand — the  free  Negro — the  Negro  who 
in  spite  of  contempt,  discouragement,  caste  and  poverty 
has  put  himself  on  a  plane  where  it  is  simply  impossible 
to  deny  that  he  is  by  every  legitimate  measurement  the 
equal  of  his  average  white  neighbor.  The  former  argu 
ment  was  as  I  have  mentioned  that  no  such  class  existed. 
This  assertion  was  persisted  in  until  it  became  ludicrous. 
To-day  the  fashion  is  come  to  regard  this  class  as  excep 
tional  so  far  as  the  logic  of  the  Negro  problem  is  con 
cerned,  dangerous  so  far  as  social  peace  is  concerned, 
and  its  existence  more  than  offset  by  an  abnormal  num 
ber  of  criminals,  degenerates  and  defectives. 

Right  here,  then,  comes  the  center  of  the  present  prob 
lem,  namely :  What  is  the  truth  about  this  ?  What  are 
the  real  facts  ?  How  far  is  Negro  crime  due  to  inherited 
and  growing  viciousness  and  how  far  to  poverty,  degra 
dation  and  systematic  oppression  ? 

How  far  is  Negro  labor  lazy  and  how  far  is  it  the 
listless  victim  of  systematic  theft? 

How  far  is  the  Negro  woman  lewd  and  how  far  the 
helpless  victim  of  social  custom? 

How  far  are  Negro  children  being  educated  to-day  in 
the  public  schools  of  the  South  and  how  far  is  the  effort 
to  curtail  that  training  increasingly  successful? 

How  far  are  Negroes  leaving  the  farms  and  rushing 
to  the  cities  to  escape  work  and  how  far  to  escape  slav 
ery? 

How  far  is  this  race  designated  as  Negroes  the  de 
scendants  of  African  slaves  and  how  far  is  it  descended 
from  the  most  efficient  white  blood  of  the  nation? 

What  does  actual  physical  and  social  measurement 
prove  as  to  the  status  of  these  descendants  of  black  men? 

All  these  are   fundamental   questions.       Not  a   single 


valid  conclusion  as  to  the  future  can  be  absolutely  insisted 
upon  without  definite  skilful  scientific  answers  to  these 
questions  and  yet  not  a  single  systematic  effort  to  an 
swer  these  questions  on  an  adequate  scale  has  been  made 
in  these  United  States  from  1619  to  1909.  Not  only  this 
but  on  all  sides  opposition  ranging  from  indifference  and 
reluctance  to  actual  force  is  almost  universal  when  any 
attempt  to  study  the  Negro  problem  adequately  is  pro 
posed.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  universal  and  deliberate  ig 
norance  the  demand  is  made  that  one  line  of  solution, 
which  a  number  of  good  men  have  assumed  is  safe  and 
sane,  shall  be  accepted  by  everybody  and  particularly  by 
thinking  black  men.  The  penalty  for  not  accepting  this 
programme  is  to  be  dubbed  a  radical,  a  busy-body,  an 
impatient  dreamer  and  a  dangerous  agitator.  Yet  this 
programme  involves  justification  of  disfranchisement,  the 
personal  humiliation  of  Jim-Crowism,  a  curtailed  and 
purposely  limited  system  of  education  and  a  virtual  ac 
knowledgment  of  the  inevitable  and  universal  inferiority 
of  black  men.  And  then  in  the  face  of  this  we  are 
asked  to  look  pleasant  and  do  our  very  best.  I  think 
it  is  the  most  cowardly  dilemma  that  a  strong  people  ever 
thrust  upon  the  weak.  And  I  for  one  have  protested 
and  do  protest  and  shall  protest  that  in  my  humble  opin 
ion  the  assumption  is  an  outrageous  falsehood  dictated 
by  selfishness,  cowardice  and  greed  and  for  the  righteous 
ness  of  my  cause  and  the  proof  of  my  assertions,  I  ap 
peal  to  one  arbitrament  and  one  alone  and  that  is :  THE 
TRUTH. 


158 


THE  PROBLEM'S  SOLUTION 

J.  Milton  Waldron 

President  of 
The  National  Negro  American  Political  League 

Washington,    D.  C. 

That  fearless,  able  and  broad-minded  author  of  "The 
Negro  and  the  Sunny  South" — a  book,  by  the  way, 
every  American  citizen  should  read — Samuel  Creed 
Cross,  a  white  man  of  West  Virginia,  takes  up  an  en 
tire  chapter  in  his  excellent  work  in  giving  with  the 
briefest  comments  even  a  partial  list  of  the  crimes  com 
mitted  by  the  whites  of  the  South  against  the  Negroes 
during  his  recent  residence  of  six  months  in  that  sec 
tion.  And  last  year  eighty  or  ninety  colored  persons, 
some  of  them  women  and  children,  were  murdered, 
lynched  or  burned  for  "the  nameless  crime/'  for  murder 
or  suspected  murder,  for  barn  burning,  for  insulting 
white  women  and  "talking  back"  to  white  men,  for  strik 
ing  an  impudent  white  lad,  for  stealing  a  white  boy's 
lunch  and  for  no  crime  at  all — unless  it  be  a  crime  for  a 
black  man  to  ask  southern  men  for  his  rights. 

Within  the  last  twelve  months  Georgia  disfranchised 
her  colored  citizens  by  a  constitutional  subterfuge  and 
Florida  attempted  the  same  crime,  and  almost  every 
white  secular  newspaper  and  many  of  the  religious  jour 
nals  of  the  South  contained  in  every  issue  of  their  pub- 


lications  abusive  and  malicious  articles  concerning  the 
Negro  in  which  they  inflamed  the  whites  against  the 
brother  in  black  and  sought  to  justify  the  South 
in  robbing  him  of  his  labor,  his  self-respect,  his 
franchise,  his  liberty  and  life  itself.  Many  of  the  of 
ficials  of  southern  states,  including  numerous  judges  and 
not  a  few  Christian  ministers,  helped  or  sanctioned  these 
Negro-hating  editors  and  reporters  in  their  despicable 
onslaught  upon  the  Negro,  while  tens  of  thousands  of 
business  men  of  the  South  fattened  upon  Negro  convict 
and  contract  labor  and  the  "order  system." 

Not  satisfied  with  the  wrongs  and  outrages  she  has 
heaped  upon  the  colored  people  in  her  own  borders,  the 
South  is  industriously  preaching  her  \vicked  doctrine  of 
Negro  inferiority,  Negro  suppression  and  Negro  op 
pression  in  the  North,  East  and  West.  And  yet,  in 
the  face  of  this  terrible  record  of  crime  against  the 
life,  liberty,  manhood  and  political  rights  of  the  colored 
man  which  is  being  repeated  in  the  South  every  day,  there 
are  those  in  high  places  who  have  the  temerity  to  tell 
us  that  "the  Southern  people  are  the  Negro's  best 
friends,"  and  that  "the  Negro  problem  is  a  southern 
problem  and  that  the  South  should  be  allowed  to  solve 
it  in  her  own  way  without  any  interference  on  the  part 
of  the  North." 

The  North  and  the  South  together  stole  the  black  man 
from  his  home  in  Africa  and  enslaved  him  in  this  land, 
and  this  whole  nation  has  reaped  the  benefits  of  his 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil,  and  the 
whole  nation  must  see  to  it  that  he  is  fully  emancipated, 
enfranchised,  thoroughly  educated  in  heart,  head  and 
hand  and  allowed  to  exercise  his  rights  as  a  citizen  and 
earn,  wherever  and  however  he  can,  an  honest  and  suf 
ficient  living  for  himself,  his  wife  and  children — this 
the  South  cannot  do  alone  and  unaided. 

Nearly  three  millions  of  the  ten  million  Negroes  in 

160 


this  country  live  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and 
thousands  of  others  are  coming  North  and  going  West 
every  month;  over  four  hundred  thousand  of  the  three 
millions  mentioned  above  live  in  Washington,  Baltimore, 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  St.  Louis  and  Chicago;  if 
the  Negro  problem  was  ever  a  southern  problem,  the 
colored  brother  has  taken  it  with  him  into  the  North 
and  the  West  and  made  it  a  national  problem. 

The  life,  liberty  and  happiness  of  the  black  man  and 
of  the  white  man  of  this  country  are  so  wrapped  up 
together  that  it  is  impossible  to  oppress  the  one  with 
out  eventually  oppressing  the  other.  The  white  man 
of  the  South  was  cursed  by  slavery  as  much  almost  as 
the  black  man  whom  he  robbed  of  life,  liberty  and  vir 
tue.  In  many  parts  of  the  South  to-day  the  masses  of 
poor  white  men  are  no  better  off  in  any  sphere  of  life 
than  the  colored  people,  with  the  single  exception  that 
their  faces  are  white.  The  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
common  people  of  this  entire  country  have  grown  less 
secure,  and  their  ballots  have  steadily  diminished  in 
power  since  the  colored  man  has  been  robbed  of  his 
franchise  by  the  South;  the  trusts  of  the  country  have 
seen  the  rights  of  millions  of  loyal  black  citizens  taken 
from  them  by  the  states  of  the  South  in  open  violation 
of  the  federal  constitution  and  that  with  the  tacit  appro 
val  of  the  highest  courts  of  the  land,  and  they  have  come 
to  feel  that  constitutions  and  laws  are  not  binding  upon 
them,  and  that  the  common  people — white  or  black — 
have  no  rights  which  they  are  bound  to  respect.  The 
South  alone  cannot  right  these  gigantic  wrongs  nor  re 
store  to  the  white  people  (not  to  mention  the  Negroes) 
in  her  borders  the  liberties  and  privileges  guaranteed  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

In  discussing  the  Youth's  attitude  towards  the  colored 
man  we  seek  only  to  hold  up  to  scorn  and  contempt 
the  spirit  which  predominates  in  that  section ;  and  we  de- 

161 


sire  to  condemn  only  the  men  of  that  section  who  hate 
their  fellow-men,  and  we  wish  to  bear  testimony  now  and 
here  to  the  fact  that  there  is  an  under-current  in  the 
South,  which  is  making  for  righteousness,  and  that 
there  are  a  few  noble  and  heroic  souls  like  Rev.  Quincy 
Ewing  of  Louisiana,  and  the  late  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry  of 
Virginia,  in  each  southern  state  who  believe  that 
the  Negro  ought  to  be  treated  as  a  man  and  given  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  accorded  any  other  man.  This 
righteous  spirit  must,  however,  be  encouraged  and 
strengthened  and  the  number  of  noble  and  fair-minded 
men  and  women  in  the  South  must  be  greatly  augment 
ed,  or  the  battle  for  human  liberty  and  the  manhood 
and  political  rights  of  both  races  in  that  section  will 
never  be  won. 

We  beg  to  say  that  all  the  enemies  of  human  rights  in 
general,  and  of  the  rights  of  black  men  in  particular,  are 
not  in  the  South ;  the  wrongs  complained  of  by  the  Negro 
in  that  section  are,  for  the  most  part,  the  same  as  those  be 
wailed  by  the  Negro  in  the  North,  with  this  difference: 
the  northern  Negro's  right  to  protest  against  the  wrongs 
heaped  upon  him  is  less  restricted,  and  his  means  of 
protection  and  defense  are  more  numerous  than  those 
of  his  southern  brother.  Already  in  at  least  one  state 
north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  Herculean  efforts 
are  being  put  forth  to  disfranchise  the  colored  man  by 
constitutional  enactment;  the  discrimination  against  a 
man  on  account  of  his  color,  and  the  lynching  of 
Negroes  and  the  burning  of  their  houses  by  infuriated 
mobs  of  white  men  are  not  unheard  of  things  in  the 
North  and  West.  Most  of  the  labor  unions  of  these  sec 
tions  are  still  closed  to  the  brother  in  black,  and  most 
white  working  men  here  are  determined  that  the  Negro 
shall  not  earn  a  living  in  any  respectable  calling  if  they 
can  prevent  it;  many  of  the  newspapers  North  and 
West  (and  a  few  right  here  in  New  York  City)  often 

162 


use  their  columns  to  misrepresent  and  slander  the  col 
ored  man,  and  it  was  only  last  week  when  one  of  the 
highest  courts  in  the  Empire  state  rendered  a  decision 
in  which  it  justified  discrimination  against  a  man  on 
the  grounds  of  his  color  and  his  condition  of  servitude. 
Verily,  the  Negro  problem  is  not  a  southern  but  a 
national  problem. 

The  most  recent  solvent  proposed  for  the  race  prob 
lem  is  the  one  brought  forward  by  President  Taft — 
which  by  the  way  is  simply  Dr.  Washington's  prescrip 
tion  revised  and  amended.  Mr.  Taft  thinks  that  the 
Negro  problem  will  be  eventually  solved  if  the  col 
ored  man  will  make  himself  useful  to  the  business 
interests  of  the  community  and  keep  out  of  sight  and 
out  of  public  office  where  he  is  by  reason  of  his  num 
bers  or  prominence  offensive  to  white  people.  With 
regard  to  the  President's  solution  for  the  race  problem 
it  ought  to  be  said  that  the  reaction  in  public  sentiment 
in  the  last  twenty  years  regarding  justice  to  the  Negro 
is  as  much  the  result  of  what  is  known  as  the  prosper 
ity  of  the  country  and  the  development  of  its  resources 
as  of  anything  else.  In  fact,  the  desire  to  put  the  Negro 
to  one  side,  to  segregate  him,  to  assign  him  to  a  place 
at  the  bottom  of  the  social  scheme,  has  its  origin  in  and 
receives  its  support  from  the  dominant  commercial  and 
industrial  elements  of  the  country.  We  have  been  told, 
and  are  still  told  that  agitation  concerning  the  Negro 
hurts  business,  frightens  prosperity  and  arrests  the  de 
velopment  of  material  and  commercial  resources. 

The  usual  plea  now  heard  in  behalf  of  the  Negro  and 
the  one  which  President  Taft  makes  is  that  his  labor 
is  necessary  to  a  section  of  the  country,  and  that  his 
freedom,  his  happiness,  his  morals  and  his  education  are 
to  be  looked  after  to  the  extent  that  they  add  to  the  pro 
ductiveness  and  efficiency  of  his  labor  and,  as  a  conse 
quence,  the  enrichment  of  his  employers.  It  is  regarded 

163 


as  good  form  to  refer  to  the  Negro  as  "an  economic  asset 
of  the  communities  where  he  is  found  in  large  num 
bers,"  and  the  idea  is  spread  abroad  that  whatever  de 
cency  or  consideration  is  extended  to  him  is  for  the 
profit  and  advantage  of  others  and  not  for  him  as  a 
man.  While  chattel  slavery  is  no  longer  upheld  by  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land,  the  habit  and  practice  in 
thought  and  speech  of  looking  at  Negroes  from  the 
chattel  plane  still  persists.  President  Taft's  advice,  if 
followed,  may  make  slipshod  servants  of  Negroes  but  it 
will  not  train  them  into  good  citizens  or  noble  men. 

Many  solutions  for  the  Negro  problem  have  been  pro 
posed,  but  to  our  mind  there  is  one  and  only  one 
practical  and  effective  answer  to  the  question.  In  the 
first  place  we  claim  that  the  early  friends  of  the  Negro 
grasped  the  true  solution,  which  is  that  his  needs  and 
possibilities  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  other  mem 
bers  of  the  human  family;  that  he  must  be  educated 
not  only  for  industrial  efficiency  and  for  private  gain, 
but  to  share  in  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  a  free 
democracy;  that  he  must  have  equality  of  rights,  for 
his  own  sake,  for  the  sake  of  the  human  race  and  for  the 
perpetuity  of  free  institutions.  America  will  not  have 
learned  the  full  lesson  of  her  system  of  human  slavery 
until  she  realizes  that  a  rigid  caste  system  is  inimical 
to  the  progress  of  the  human  race  and  to  the  perpetuity 
of  democratic  government. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Negro  must  make  common 
cause  with  the  working  class  which  to-day  is  organ 
izing  and  struggling  for  better  social  and  economic  con 
ditions.  The  old  slave  oligarchy  maintained  its  ascend 
ency  largely  by  fixing  a  gulf  between  the  Negro  slave 
and  the  white  free  laborer,  and  the  jealousies  and  ani 
mosities  of  the  slave  period  have  survived  to  keep  apart 
the  Negro  and  the  laboring  white  man.  Powerful  in 
fluences  are  at  work  even  to-day  to  impress  upon  the 

164 


Negro  the  fact  that  he  must  look  to  the  business  men 
of  the  South  alone  for  protection  and  recognition  of  his 
rights,  while  at  the  same  time  these  influences  inflame 
the  laboring  white  man  with  fears  of  social  equality 
and  race  fusion.  The  Negro,  being  a  laborer,  must  see 
that  the  cause  of  labor  is  his  cause,  that  his  elevation 
can  be  largely  achieved  by  having  the  sympathy,  sup 
port  and  co-operation  of  that  growing  organization  of 
working  men  the  world  over  which  is  working  out  the 
larger  problems  of  human  freedom  and  economic  op 
portunity. 

In  the  third  place,  wherever  in  this  country  the  Negro 
has  the  franchise,  and  where  by  complying  with  re 
quirements  he  can  regain  it,  let  him  exercise  it  faithfully 
and  constantly,  but  let  him  do  so  as  an  independent  and 
not  as  a  partisan,  for  his  political  salvation  in  the  future 
depends  upon  his  voting  for  men  and  measures,  rather 
than  with  any  particular  party. 

For  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  black  man  of 
America  toiled  in  the  South  without  pay  and  without 
thanks;  he  cleared  her  forests,  tunneled  her  mountains, 
bridged  her  streams,  built  her  cottages  and  palaces,  cul 
tivated  her  fields,  watered  her  crops  with  his  tears,  fer 
tilized  her  fields  with  his  blood,  nursed  her  children, 
protected  her  women  and  guarded  her  homes  from  the 
midnight  marauder,  the  devouring  flames  and  approach 
ing  disease  and  death.  The  colored  American  willingly 
and  gladly  enlisted  and  fought  in  every  war  waged  by  this 
country,  from  the  first  conflict  with  the  Indians  to  the  last 
battle  in  Cuba  and  the  Philippines ;  when  enfranchised  he 
voted  the  rebellious  states  back  into  the  Union,  and  from 
that  day  until  this  he  has,  as  a  race,  never  used  his  ballot, 
unless  corrupted  or  intimidated  by  white  men,  to  the 
detriment  of  any  part  of  America.  When  in  power  in 
the  South,  though  for  the  most  part  ignorant  and  just 
out  of  slavery  and  surrounded  by  vindictive  ex-slave 

165 


owners  and  mercenary,  corrupted  and  corrupting 
"carpet  baggers,"  he  did  what  his  former  masters 
had  failed  for  centuries  to  do — he  established  the  free 
school  system,  erected  asylums  for  the  insane  and  in 
digent  poor,  purged  the  statute  books  of  disgraceful 
marriage  laws  and  oppressive  and  inhuman  labor  regu 
lations,  revised  and  improved  the  penal  code,  and  by 
many  other  worthy  acts  proved  that  the  heart  of  the 
race  was,  and  is,  in  the  right  place,  and  that  whenever 
the  American  Negro  has  been  trusted,  he  has  proven 
himself  trustworthy  and  manly.  And  when  the  colored 
man  is  educated,  and  is  treated  with  fairness  and  justice, 
and  is  accorded  the  rights  and  privileges  which  are  the 
birthright  of  every  American  citizen,  he  will  show  him 
self  a  man  among  men  and  the  race  problem  will  vanish 
as  the  mist  before  the  rising  sun. 


166 


Morning  Session,  June  1 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  A.M.,  D.D.,  Chairman 


CIVIL  AND  POLITICAL  STATUS  OF 
THE   NEGRO 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  A.  M.,  D.  D. 

of 

New   York  City 

Through  a  bloody  conflict  and  the  act  of  the  great  Lin 
coln  we  were  emancipated,  and  later  in  1865  we  were 
confirmed  in  our  freedom  by  the  passage  of  the  Thir 
teenth  Amendment  to  the  federal  Constitution. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment,  ratified  in  1868,  made  us 
citizens  of  the  United  States  and  confirmed  us  in  our 
civil  rights.  In  1872  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was 
ratified  which  was  intended  to  confirm  us  in  the  right  of 
suffrage.  We  plead  for  our  constitutional  rights  on  the 
ground  that  the  right  of  suffrage,  when  it  has  been  once 
conferred  by  the  federal  government,  becomes  the  in 
violable  right  of  every  citizen  of  whatever  color,  race  or 
rank  in  social  life,  and  therefore  suffrage  is  not  a  privi 
lege  to  be  conferred  or  withheld  by  the  states.  The  pow 
ers  of  the  federal  government  were  not  conferred  by  a 
single  state,  but  by  all  the  states,  therefore,  the  general 
government,  through  congress,  can  enforce  the  provisions 
of  the  Constitution. 

The  Negro  believes  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  retain 
the  franchise  in  all  parts  of  this  land,  because  of  the 
military  service  he  has  rendered  the  nation.  Side  by 
side  with  his  white  brother,  the  Negro  has  fought  brave- 

167 


ly  in  every  war  of  the  nation  to  save  the  honor  of  the 
flag.  No  one  has  been  more  loyal  to  its  colors  than  he, 
and  he  sees  no  reason  why  it  should  not  protect  him. 

He  believes  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  retain  his  po 
litical  rights  because  he  is  becoming  educated  and  is  being 
made  a  strong  man;  because  he  is  a  considerable  tax 
payer  and  his  wealth  is  increasing  every  day.  He  knows 
that  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  this  republic  is  that  there 
shall  be  no  taxation  without  representation. 

The  Rev.  Frances  J.  Grimke  of  Washington,  in  a  re 
cent  publication  says :  "The  South  does  not  believe  in 
the  civil  and  political  equality  of  the  colored  man;  does 
not  believe  that  he  should  vote,  and  does  not  believe  that 
he  should  hold  office.  It  is  not  enough  that  it  has  de 
prived  us  of  our  civil  and  political  rights  within  its  own 
territory;  it  is  not  enough  that  within  the  South  itself 
we  have  been  reduced  to  a  political  nonentity,  have  been 
placed  where  the  South  thinks  we  belong  and  where  we 
ought  to  be  kept ;  but  it  is  now  actively  engaged  in  press 
ing  these  views  upon  the  whole  country.  It  is  working 
just  as  zealously  now  to  nationalize  its  views  on  the  civil 
and  political  status  of  the  Negro  as  it  did  to  nationalize 
its  views  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  Wherever  southern 
men  are  found,  with  here  and  there  an  exception  in  nor 
thern  pulpits,  editorial  chairs,  professorships  in  colleges 
and  universities,  in  places  of  business,  they  are  always 
actively  engaged  in  propagating  this  moral  and  political 
heresy  in  regard  to  the  Negro's  proper  place  in  the  na 
tion,  in  urging  their  views  upon  others."  The  same  ar 
gument  used  to-day  was  used  in  the  days  of  slavery  to 
keep  the  slaves  in  bondage,  but  it  failed  and  it  will  fail 
again. 

Mr.  Quincy  Ewing,  of  Louisiana,  in  an  article  in 
the  March  number  of  the  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  says: 
"The  foundation  of  the  problem,  true  or  false,  is  the 
white  man's  conviction,  that  the  Negro  as  a  race,  and  as 

168 


an  individual,  is  his  inferior ;  not  human  in  the  sense 
that  he  is  human,  not  entitled  to  the  exercise  of  human 
rights  in  the  sense  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  exercise  of 
them.  The  problem  itself,  the  essence  of  it,  the  heart  of 
it,  is  the  white  man's  determination  to  make  good  this 
conviction,  coupled  with  constant  anxiety  lest,  by  some 
means,  he  should  fail  to  make  it  good.  The  race  prob 
lem,  in  other  words,  is  not  that  the  Negro  is  what  he  is 
in  relation  to  the  white  man,  the  white  man's  inferior; 
but  this,  rather :  How  to  keep  him  what  he  is  in  relation 
to  the  white  man ;  how  to  prevent  his  ever  achieving  or 
becoming  that  which  would  justify  the  belief  on  his  part, 
or  on  the  part  of  the  other  people,  that  he  and  the  white 
man  stand  on  common  human  ground." 

Says  Dr.  Grimke :  "We  are  governed  but  have  no  part 
in  the  government — in  the  making  of  laws,  in  the  levy 
ing  of  taxes,  in  legislation  in  any  shape  or  form ;  we  are 
tried  and  convicted  but  always,  or  so  nearly  always  as  to 
make  it  the  rule,  by  a  white  jury,  by  men  who  from  the 
start  are  prejudiced  against  us;  we  are  permitted  to  tes 
tify,  but  our  testimony  counts  for  nothing  against  the 
word  of  a  white  person.  Now  the  presumption  always 
is,  that  the  white  man  is  innocent  until  he  is  proven  guil 
ty;  the  presumption,  in  case  of  a  colored  person,  is  al 
ways  that  he  is  guilty  until  he  has  proved  his  innocence, 
which  is  well  nigh  impossible,  especially  if  his  accuser 
happens  to  be  a  white  person.  The  disposition  always 
is  to  accept  the  statement  of  the  white  man  against  the 
black  man,  and  never  the  statement  of  the  black  man 
against  the  white  man.  The  disposition  always  is  to  in 
criminate  the  one  and  to  clear  the  other  where  there  is 
any  conflict  between  the  two." 

Now  comes  the  infamous  decision  of  Judge  Dugro,  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  who  declares  that  the 
Negro  has  no  such  sensibilities  as  the  white  man,  for 
getting  that  there  are  Negroes  and  Negroes. 

169 


"In  one  sense,"  says  Judge  Dugro,  "a  colored  man  is 
just  as  good  as  a  white  man,  for  the  law  says  he  is,  but 
he  has  not  the  same  amount  of  injury  under  all  circum 
stances  that  a  white  man  would  have.  Maybe  in  a  col 
ored  community  down  South,  where  white  men  were 
held  in  great  disfavor  he  might  be  more  injured,  but 
after  all  in  this  sort  of  a  community  I  dare  say  the  amount 
of  evil  that  would  flow  to  the  colored  man  from  a  charge 
like  this  would  not  be  as  great  as  it  probably  would  be 
to  a  white  man." 

This  outrageous  decision  is  followed  by  the  locomotive 
engineers  of  Georgia  going  on  a  strike  to  force  the  Negro 
firemen  from  the  engines,  a  position  they  have  held  for 
years.  Says  the  Richmond,  Va.,  "Times-Dispatch :"  "It 
would  be  easier  to  sympathize  with  these  striking  Geor 
gia  railway  men  if  it  was  felt  that  their  quarrel  was 
reasonable  and  just,  but  the  reverse  seems  to  be  true. 
The  ostensible  reason  for  the  strike  was  the  substitution 
of  some  Negro  fireman  for  some  white  firemen,  and  the 
presumable  reason  for  these  changes  was  that  the  Negroes 
would  do  the  work  equally  well  for  less  money.  A  deep 
er  cause  for  the  trouble  is  suggested  by  the  report  that 
the  coming  of  a  certain  labor  leader  from  Toronto  to 
Georgia  was  for  the  purpose  of  helping  the  white  firemen 
to  get  a  raise  in  pay,  a  plan  which  was  made  difficult  or 
impossible  by  the  presence  of  the  colored  firemen. 

There  is  some  ground  for  believing  that  the  race  issue 
has  been  deliberately  emphasized  a  good  deal  more  than 
was  necessary  with  a  view  to  enlisting  popular  support 
in  what  is  otherwise  a  simple  dispute  between  capital  and 
labor.  But  in  any  case,  the  root  of  the  trouble  appears 
to  lie  in  the  willingness  of  the  Negro  to  do  certain  labor 
for  less  pay  than  white  men. 

Here  is  a  plain  economic  fact  which  should  be  frankly 
faced.  No  one  can  deny  that  the  Negro  fireman  would 
like  to  draw  the  same  pay  that  goes  to  the  white  fireman. 

170 


The  fact  that  he  has  to  content  himself  with  less,  assum 
ing  that  he  does  the  work  equally  well,  is  an  economic 
discrimination  against  him  on  the  ground  of  his  color. 
To  insist  that  the  railway  pay  a  higher  price  than  neces 
sary  for  this  work,  in  order  to  have  it  done  by  a  white 
man,  is  simply  to  unionize  race  prejudice.  Unions  are 
supposed  to  represent  all  labor,  not  simply  white  labor. 
What  they  now  ask,  in  effect,  is  that  Negroes  shall  no 
longer  be  employed. 

This  is  the  demand  which  has  led  to  a  condition  of 
chaos  in  Georgia,  to  the  inconvenience  of  thousands  of 
people.  But  it  must  be  evident  that  shoveling  coal  for 
an  engine  is  entirely  suitable  work  for  a  Negro,  and  that 
unless  he  is  to  be  denied  all  rights,  he  has  a  full  right  to 
be  protected  in  it.  Georgia  locomotives  have  long  been 
stoked  by  colored  firemen.  These  men  have  done  the 
work  efficiently,  and  there  is  no  pretense  that  white  en 
gineers  object  to  associating  with  them  in  this  way.  It 
is  all  the  question  of  a  pay  envelope.  Georgians  who 
have  thoughtlessly  sided  with  the  strikers  on  the  appeal 
to  race  prejudice,  would  do  well  to  consider  the  economic 
side  of  this  question.  If  the  Negro  cannot  fire  locomo 
tives,  what  work  shall  he  be  allowed  to  do?  Would 
Georgia  rather  have  her  Negroes  occupied  at  hard  physi 
cal  work  or  loafing  around  the  street  corners  of  At 
lanta?" 

"The  whole  trend  of  this  movement  among  the  south 
ern  whites,"  says  the  "Guardian,"  "is  to  keep  the  Negro 
down  to  the  same  place  of  social  and  economic  inferiori 
ty  that  he  occupied  during  slavery  and  restrict  them  to 
work  as  farm  laborers,  mule  drivers,  roustabouts,  por 
ters,  waiters,  whitewashers  and  general  utility  men." 

In  view  of  the  foregoing,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  mem 
bers  and  friends  of  our  race  to  labor  as  zealously  to 
change  these  unfavorable  conditions,  as  the  enemy  has 
labored  to  bring  them  about.  To  do  this  we  must  first 

171 


of  all  determine  to  make  no  compromise  when  manhood 
rights  are  involved,  and  second,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
work  must  be  done  through  organized  effort.  Every 
thing  in  our  power  should  be  done  to  encourage  the  race 
to  continue  its  intellectual,  moral,  financial  and  educa 
tional  progress.  The  black  man  like  any  other  man  must 
so  live  and  act  as  to  command  respect  as  well  as  to  de 
mand  it.  In  the  last  analysis  it  is  worth  that  tells. 

The  need  of  the  hour  is  the  creation  of  a  healthy  pub 
lic  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  enforcement  of  the  Four 
teenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments  to  the  federal  Consti 
tution.  We  should  hold  public  meetings  in  different 
sections  of  the  country,  and  have  the  best  informed  men 
in  this  and  other  countries  to  prepare  papers  and  discuss 
subjects  bearing  on  this  problem.  A  publication  bureau 
should  be  organized  which  should  employ  first-class 
writers,  black  and  white,  to  prepare  articles  for  such 
magazines  as  will  accept  them.  In  this  way  we  can  meet 
and  counteract  the  insidious  attacks  which  are  now  being 
systematically  made  on  the  race  by  those  who  pretend 
to  be  our  friends,  but  who  at  every  turn  question  our 
moral,  intellectual  and  financial  progress;  they  take  ad 
vantage  of  false  criminal  statistics  in  order  to  change 
favorable  public  opinion  in  the  North.  We  ought  to 
have  a  lecture  bureau,  the  duty  of  which  should  be  to 
secure  able  and  distinguished  orators  to  go  up  and  down 
the  country  and  to  present  our  cause  wherever  it  is  pos 
sible  to  do  so. 

And,  further,  I  believe  that  the  division  of  the  vote  of 
the  black  man  between  the  two  great  parties  will  greatly 
aid  in  the  solution  of  the  political  problem,  especially  in 
the  South.  The  ballot  is  the  badge  of  political  equality, 
the  insignia  of  one's  citizenship,  and  whenever  and 
wherever  there  is  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  to  accept  a  Negro  as  an  ally  and  treat  him 
fairly,  we  should  be  willing  to  affiliate  with  that  party. 

172 


It  is  the  surest  and  quickest  way  to  break  down  political 
prejudice  and  have  the  South  permanently  recognize  our 
political  equality. 

We  are  grateful  to  President  Taft  for  his  expressions 
of  kindness  and  interest  manifested  in  our  welfare,  but 
deeply  deplore  the  impression  made  upon  the  South  by 
the  question  raised  in  his  inaugural  address  of  the  ex 
pediency  of  appointment  of  colored  men  to  office  in  that 
section.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  Negroes  of  the 
country  are  in  hearty  accord  with  President  Taft  in 
bringing  about  a  closer  union  between  the  North  and  the 
South,  but  not  at  the  expense  of  the  black  man.  I  be 
lieve  them  to  be  in  favor  of  peace  between  sections,  but 
peace  with  honor.  It  is  not  platitudes  we  need  just  now 
from  the  President,  but  the  enforcement  of  the  laws 
which  he  has  sworn  to  enforce. 


173 


LYNCHING  OUR  NATIONAL  CRIME 

Mrs.  Ida  Wells-Barnett 

of 

Chicago 

The  lynching  record  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  merits 
the  thoughtful  study  of  the  American  people.  It  pre 
sents  three  salient  facts: 

First :     Lynching  is  color  line  murder. . 

Second:  Crimes  against  women  is  the  excuse,  not 
the  cause. 

Third :  It  is  a  national  crime  and  requires  a  national 
remedy. 

Proof  that  lynching  follows  the  color  line  is  to  be 
found  in  the  statistics  which  have  been  kept  for  the  past 
twenty-five  years.  During  the  few  years  preceding  this 
period  and  while  frontier  lynch  law  existed,  the  execu 
tions  showed  a  majority  of  white  victims.  Later,  how 
ever,  as  law  courts  and  authorized  judiciary  extended 
into  the  far  West,  lynch  law  rapidly  abated  and  its 
white  victims  became  few  and  far  between. 

Just  as  the  lynch  law  regime  came  to  a  close  in  the 
West,  a  new  mob  movement  started  in  the  South.  This 
was  wholly  political,  its  purpose  being  to  suppress  the 
colored  vote  by  intimidation  and  murder.  Thousands  of 
assassins  banded  together  under  the  name  of  Ku  Klux 
Klans,  "Midnight  Raiders,"  "Knights  of  the  Golden  Cir 
cle,"  etc.,  spread  a  reign  of  terror,  by  beating,  shooting 

174 


and  killing  colored  people  by  the  thousands.  In  a  few 
years,  the  purpose  was  accomplished  and  the  black  vote 
was  suppressed.  But  mob  murder  continued. 

From  1882,  in  which  year  52  were  lynched,  down  to 
the  present,  lynching  has  been  along  the  color  line.  Mob 
murder  increased  yearly  until  in  1892  more  than  200  vic 
tims  were  lynched  and  statistics  show  that  3,284  men, 
women  and  children  have  been  put  to  death  in  this  quar 
ter  of  a  century.  During  the  last  ten  years  from  1899 
to  1908  inclusive  the  number  lynched  was  959.  Of  this 
number  102  were  white  while  the  colored  victims  num 
bered  857.  No  other  nation,  civilized  or  savage,  burns 
its  criminals;,  only  under  the  stars  and  stripes  is  the 
human  holocaust  possible.  Twenty-eight  human  beings 
burned  at  the  stake,  one  of  them  a  woman  and  two  of 
them  children,  is  the  awful  indictment  against  American 
civilization — the  grewsome  tribute  which  the  nation  pays 
to  the  color  line. 

Why  is  mob  murder  permitted  by  a  Christian  nation? 
What  is  the  cause  of  this  awful  slaughter?  This  ques 
tion  is  answered  almost  daily — always  the  same  shame 
less  falsehood  that  "Negroes  are  lynched  to  protect  wom 
anhood."  Standing  before  a  Chautauqua  assemblage, 
John  Temple  Graves,  at  once  champion  of  lynching  and 
apologist  for  lynchers,  said:  "The  mob  stands  to-day 
as  the  most  potential  bulwark  between  the  women  of  the 
South  and  such  a  carnival  of  crime  as  would  infuriate 
the  world  and  precipitate  the  annihilation  of  the  Negro 
race."  This  is  the  never  varying  answer  of  lynchers 
and  their  apologists.  All  know  that  it  is  untrue.  The 
cowardly  lyncher  revels  in  murder,  then  seeks  to  shield 
himself  from  public  execration  by  claiming  devotion  to 
woman.  But  truth  is  mighty  and  the  lynching  record 
discloses  the  hypocrisy  of  the  lyncher  as  well  as  his 
crime. 

The  Springfield,  Illinois,  mob  rioted  for  two  days,  the 

i75 


militia  of  the  entire  state  was  called  out,  two  men  were 
lynched,  hundreds  of  people  driven  from  their  homes,  all 
because  a  white  woman  said  a  Negro  had  assaulted  her.  A 
mad  mob  went  to  the  jail,  tried  to  lynch  the  victim  of 
her  charge  and,  not  being  able  to  find  him,  proceeded  to 
pillage  and  burn  the  town  and  to  lynch  two  innocent 
men.  Later,  after  the  police  had  found  that  the  woman's 
charge  was  false,  she  published  a  retraction,  the  indict 
ment  was  dismissed  and  the  intended  victim  discharged. 
But  the  lynched  victims  were  dead.  Hundreds  were 
homeless  and  Illinois  was  disgraced. 

As  a  final  and  complete  refutation  of  the  charge  that 
lynching  is  occasioned  by  crimes  against  women,  a  par 
tial  record  of  lynchings  is  cited ;  285  persons  were  lynched 
for  causes  as  follow : 

Unknown  cause,  92;  no  cause,  10;  race  prejudice,  49; 
miscegenation,  7;  informing,  12;  making  threats,  u; 
keeping  saloon,  3 ;  practising  fraud,  5 ;  practising  voo- 
dooism,  2;  bad  reputation,  8;  unpopularity,  3;  mistaken 
identity,  5 ;  using  improper  language,  3 ;  violation  of  con 
tract,  i ;  writing  insulting  letter,  2 ;  eloping,  2 ;  poisoning 
horse,  I ;  poisoning  well,  2 ;  by  white  caps,  9 ;  vigilantes, 
14;  Indians,  i;  moonshining,  i;  refusing  evidence,  2; 
political  causes,  5 ;  disputing,  i ;  disobeying  quarantine 
regulations,  2 ;  slapping  a  child,  i ;  turning  state's  evi 
dence,  3 ;  protecting  a  Negro,  i ;  to  prevent  giving  evi 
dence,  i ;  knowledge  of  larceny,  i  ;  writing  letter  to  white 
woman,  i ;  asking  white  woman  to  marry,  i  ;  jilting  girl, 
i ;  having  smallpox,  i ;  concealing  criminal,  2 ;  threaten 
ing  political  exposure,  i;  self-defense,  6;  cruelty,  i;  in 
sulting  language  to  woman,  5  ;  quarreling  with  white  man, 
2 ;  colonizing  Negroes,  i ;  throwing  stones,  i ;  quarreling, 
i ;  gambling,  i. 

Is  there  a  remedy,  or  will  the  nation  confess  that  it 
cannot  protect  its  protectors  at  home  as  well  as  abroad? 
Various  remedies  have  been  suggested  to  abolish  the 

176 


lynching  infamy,  but  year  after  year,  the  butchery  of 
men,  women  and  children  continues  in  spite  of  plea  and 
protest.  Education  is  suggested  as  a  preventive,  but  it 
is  as  grave  a  crime  to  murder  an  ignorant  man  as  it  is 
a  scholar.  True,  few  educated  men  have  been  lynched, 
but  the  hue  and  cry  once  started  stops  at  no  bounds,  as 
was  clearly  shown  by  the  lynchings  in  Atlanta,  and  in 
Springfield,  Illinois. 

Agitation,  though  helpful,  will  not  alone  stop  the 
crime.  Year  after  year  statistics  are  published,  meetings 
are  held,  resolutions  are  adopted  and  yet  lynchings  go 
on.  Public  sentiment  does  measurably  decrease  the 
sway  of  mob  law,  but  the  irresponsible  blood-thirsty 
criminals  who  swept  through  the  streets  of  Springfield, 
beating  an  inoffensive  law-abiding  citizen  to  death  in 
one  part  of  the  town,  and  in  another  torturing  and  shoot 
ing  to  death  a  man  who,  for  threescore  years,  had 
made  a  reputation  for  honesty,  integrity  and  sobriety, 
had  raised  a  family  and  had  accumulated  property,  was 
not  deterred  from  its  heinous  crimes  by  either  educa 
tion  or  agitation. 

The  only  certain  remedy  is  an  appeal  to  law.  Law 
breakers  must  be  made  to  know  that  human  life  is 
sacred  and  that  every  citizen  of  this  country  is  first  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States  and  secondly  a  citizen  of  the 
state  in  which  he  belongs.  This  nation  must  assert  it 
self  and  defend  its  federal  citizenship  at  home  as  well  as 
abroad.  The  strong  arm  of  the  government  must  reach 
across  state  lines  whenever  unbridled  lawlessness  de 
fies  state  laws  and  must  give  to  the  individual  citizen  un 
der  the  Stars  and  Stripes  the  same  measure  of  protec 
tion  which  it  gives  to  him  when  he  travels  in  foreign 
lands. 

Federal  protection  of  American  citizenship  is  the 
remedy  for  lynching.  Foreigners  are  rarely  lynched  in 
America.  If,  by  mistake,  one  is  lynched,  the  national 

177 


government  quickly  pays  the  damages.  The  recent  agi 
tation  in  California  against  the  Japanese  compelled  this 
nation  to  recognize  that  federal  power  must  yet  assert 
itself  to  protect  the  nation  from  the  treason  of  sover 
eign  states.  Thousands  of  American  citizens  have  been 
put  to  death  and  no  President  has  yet  raised  his  hand 
in  effective  protest,  but  a  simple  insult  to  a  native  of 
Japan  was  quite  sufficient  to  stir  the  government  at 
Washington  to  prevent  the  threatened  wrong.  If  the 
government  has  power  to  protect  a  foreigner  from  in 
sult,  certainly  it  has  power  to  save  a  citizen's  life. 

The  practical  remedy  has  been  more  than  once  sug 
gested  in  Congress.  Senator  Gallinger  of  New  Hamp 
shire  in  a  resolution  introduced  in  Congress  called  for 
an  investigation  "with  the  view  of  ascertaining  whether 
there  is  a  remedy  for  lynching  which  Congress  may  ap 
ply."  The  Senate  Committee  has  under  consideration 
a  bill  drawn  by  A.  E.  Pillsbury,  formerly  Attorney-Gen 
eral  of  Massachusetts,  providing  for  federal  prosecution 
of  lynchers  in  cases  where  the  state  fails  to  protect  citi 
zens  or  foreigners.  Both  of  these  resolutions  indicate 
that  the  attention  of  the  nation  has  been  called  to  this 
phase  of  the  lynching  question. 

As  a  final  word,  it  would  be  a  beginning  in  the 
right  direction  if  this  conference  can  see  its  way  clear 
to  establish  a  bureau  for  the  investigation  and  publica 
tion  of  the  details  of  every  lynching,  so  that  the  pub-* 
lie  could  know  that  an  influential  body  of  citizens  has 
made  it  a  duty  to  give  the  widest  publicity  to  the  facts 
in  each  case ;  that  it  will  make  an  effort  to  secure  expres 
sions  of  opinion  all  over  the  country  against  lynching 
for  the  sake  of  the  country's  fair  name ;  and  lastly,  but 
by  no  means  least,  to  try  to  influence  the  daily  papers 
of  the  country  to  refuse  to  become  accessory  to  mobs 
either  before  or  after  the  fact.  Several  of  the  greatest 
riots  and  most  brutal  burnt  offerings  of  the  mobs  have 


been  suggested  and  incited  by  the  daily  papers  of  the 
offending  community.  If  the  newspaper  which  suggests 
lynching  in  its  accounts  of  an  alleged  crime,  could  be 
held  legally  as  well  as  morally  responsible  for  reporting 
that  ''threats  of  lynching  were  heard";  or,  "It  is  feared 
that  if  the  guilty  one  is  caught,  he  will  be  lynched";  or, 
''There  were  cries  of  'lynch  him,'  and  the  only  reason 
the  threat  was  not  carried  out  was  because  no  leader 
appeared,"  a  long  step  toward  a  remedy  will  have  been 
taken. 

In  a  multitude  of  counsel  there  is  wisdom.  Upon 
the  grave  question  presented  by  the  slaughter  of  inno 
cent  men,  women  and  children  there  should  be  an  hon 
est,  courageous  conference  of  patriotic,  law-abiding  cit 
izens  anxious  to  punish  crime  promptly,  impartially  and 
by  due  process  of  law,  also  to  make  life,  liberty,  and 
property  secure  against  mob  rule. 

Time  was  when  lynching  appeared  to  ho  sectional, 
but  now  it  is  national — a  blight  upon  our  nation,  mock 
ing  our  laws  and  disgracing  our  Christianity.  "With 
malice  toward  none  but  with  charity  for  all"  let  us 
undertake  the  work  of  making  the  "law  of  the  land," 
effective  and  supreme  upon  every  foot  of  American  soil 
— a  shield  to  the  innocent  and  to  the  guilty  punishment 
swift  and  sure. 


170 


NEGRO  DISFRANCHISEMENT  AS  IT 
AFFECTS  THE  WHITE  MAN 

Hon.  Albert  E.  Pillsbury 

Ex- Attorney-General 
Massachusetts 

The  view  of  Negro  disfranchisement  and  its  results 
which  I  shall  present  is  not  new  to  many  in  this  audience, 
but  it  has  never  been  pressed  as  it  ought  to  be  upon  the 
attention  of  the  country.  The  indifference  with  which 
the  people  have  suffered  the  process  of  disfranchisement 
to  go  on,  without  a  hand  and  with  hardly  a  voice  raised 
against  it,  can  be  accounted  for  only  upon  the  belief 
that  they  do  not  understand  what  it  means.  I  object  to 
it  not  merely  because  the  Negro  is  disfranchised  in  cer 
tain  states,  but  because  the  scheme  is  a  fraud  upon  the 
whole  country,  directly  impairing  the  political  rights  of 
every  other  state,  and  of  every  voter  in  every  other 
state,  the  white  as  well  as  the  black. 

If  it  stopped  with  fraudulent  disfranchisement  of  the 
Negro,  the  case  would  be  bad  enough,  and  the  public 
apathy  would  still  be  discreditable,  though  perhaps  not 
unaccountable.  It  does  not  stop  there.  It  has  multi 
plied  by  two  or  more  the  political  power,  in  the  Federal 
government,  of  every  white  voter  in  the  disfranchising 
states,  and  it  has  to  the  same  extent  disfranchised  every 
voter  in  every  other  state.  It  is  not  merely  a  ques 
tion  of  Negro  suffrage,  or  Negro  equality.  It  is  a  ques 
tion  of  the  equality  of  white  men.  The  question  now  is 

180 


whether  every  white  man,  in  any  state,  shall  be  politi 
cally  the  equal  of  every  other  white  man,  in  any  other 
state.  This  question  does  not  belong  to  any  section, 
but  to  the  whole  country.  In  the  face  of  the  claim  that 
Negro  suffrage  is  the  affair  of  the  South,  with  which 
no  other  people  have  any  business  to  interfere,  the 
course  of  the  South  has  made  it  the  affair  of  every 
white  citizen  in  the  other  thirty-six  states  who  wishes 
to  preserve  and  defend  his  own  political  rights. 

Let  us  first  dispose  of  one  or  two  delusions.  They 
attempt  to  justify  the  disfranchisement  of  the  Negro 
upon  various  false  pretenses,  so  often  repeated  and  so 
little  denied  that  they  have  come  to  be  generally  be 
lieved.  It  has  been  long  and  loudly  asserted  that  Negro 
suffrage  was  forced  upon  the  South.  It  is  not  true,  and 
it  was  never  true.  The  Thirteenth  Amendment  makes 
the  Negro  a  freeman,  and  nothing  more.  The  Four 
teenth  Amendment  makes  him  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  personal  rights  of  a  citizen,  and  nothing 
more.  The  Fifteenth  Amendment  entitles  him  to  be 
treated,  in  respect  of  the  suffrage,  only  as  other  men 
of  the  same  standing  or  character  are  treated,  and  noth 
ing  more.  The  federal  law  does  not  make  a  single 
Negro  a  voter,  in  any  state  of  the  Union.  The  ex- 
tremest  requirement  of  it  is  only  that  the  color  of  his 
skin  shall  not  disqualify  him,  if  he  is  otherwise  quali 
fied  under  such  laws  as  any  state  sees  fit  to  adopt. 

Neither  is  it  true  that  Negro  suffrage  means  Negro 
control  or  domination,  in  any  state  of  the  Union.  There 
is  not  a  state  in  which  impartial  suffrage,  honestly  ad 
ministered,  would  endanger  white  supremacy  for  a  day. 
These  two  assertions,  iterated  and  reiterated  as  they 
have  been,  and  relied  upon  to  justify  disfranchisement 
and  reconcile  the  country  to  the  fraud,  are  equally  and 
absolutely  without  foundation. 

This  is  so  well  known  that  it  cannot  be  denied.     But 

181 


when  they  complain  that  Negro  suffrage  was  forced 
upon  the  South,  they  will  tell  you  that  they  mean  the 
forcing  of  it  upon  the  South  by  the  Reconstruction  Acts. 
Is  their  case  any  better  here?  The  Reconstruction  Acts 
did  not  force  Negro  suffrage  upon  the  South.  They  of 
fered  restoration  to  the  political  rights  and  privileges 
forfeited  by  armed  rebellion,  on  condition  that  suffrage 
should  be  impartial  among  all  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  In  view  of  the  penalties  which  might  have  been 
exacted,  these  terms,  unexampled  in  history  for  their 
mildness,  do  not  seem  severe.  So  far  as  the  federal 
law  goes,  there  has  never  been  a  day  when  any  state 
of  the  Union  could  not,  by  impartial  tests  applied  alike 
to  all  citizens,  exclude  from  its  suffrage  the  ignorant, 
the  criminal,  the  depraved,  or  even  the  poor.  But  the 
history  of  the  country  from  1867  down  to  this  time 
shows  that  even  these  terms,  so  far  as  accepted  by  the 
white  South,  were  accepted  with  the  fixed  purpose  to 
disregard  them,  so  that  the  Negro  should  not  be  allowed 
to  vote.  The  first  experiments  in  Negro  suffrage  were 
met  and  resisted  by  armed  violence,  until  it  was  per 
ceived  that  fraud  is  less  dangerous  and  more  politic  than 
murder.  Then  the  tissue  ballot  appeared,  and  other 
similar  devices.  The  tissue  ballot  has  now  developed 
into  the  "grandfather"  constitution.  Fraud  has  done 
its  perfect  work. 

It  all  comes  to  this.  As  a  Negro,  they  like  him;  in 
deed  they  must  have  him.  As  a  man,  a  citizen,  or  a 
voter,  they  will  have  none  of  him.  So  far  as  the  suf 
frage  is  concerned  they  have  made  good  this  determi 
nation,  by  open  disregard  and  defiance  of  the  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  Amendments.  This  is  simply  rebellion 
against  the  government  of  the  United  States,  as  in  1861, 
the  instrument  employed  being  fraud  instead  of  force. 
In  this,  as  in  all  that  I  say,  I  refer  only  to  the  states 
where  the  crime  is  flagrant,  and  I  acknowledge,  with 

182 


grateful  appreciation,  the  attitude  of  a  minority  of  the 
best  citizens  even  in  these  states,  who  see  the  folly  and 
the  wickedness  of  fraudulent  disfranchisement  of  the 
Negro  and  have  tried  to  stay  its  mad  career. 

While  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  gave  the  Negro  noth 
ing  but  the  right  to  be  treated,  according  to  his  merits, 
as  other  men  of  equal  merit  are  treated,  the  white  South 
was  even  more  unwilling  to  accord  him  impartial  treat 
ment  under  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  than  it  was  to 
accept  him  as  a  citizen  under  the  Fourteenth,  or  as  a 
freeman  under  the  Thirteenth.  They  have  nullified,  to 
a  substantial  extent,  all  three  of  the  War  Amendments. 
In  most  of  the  southern  states  the  Negro  has  been  de 
spoiled,  by  one  sinister  device  or  another,  of  a  substan 
tial  share  even  of  the  personal  liberty  supposed  to  be 
secured  to  him  by  the  Thirteenth  Amendment.  In  but 
few  if  any  of  these  states  is  he  accorded  the  privileges 
of  a  citizen  or  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws,  sup 
posed  to  be  secured  to  him  by  the  Fourteenth  Amend 
ment.  And  now,  by  a  series  of  fraudulent  enactments 
which  began  with  Mississippi  in  1891  and  running 
through  and  around  the  "black  belt"  has  finally  em 
braced,  actually  or  practically,  every  state  that  seceded 
from  the  Union  in  1861,  the  Negro  is  eliminated  from 
their  political  system  almost  as  completely  as  though  he 
did  not  exist. 

That  this  is  a  fraud  does  not  need  to  be  asserted.  It 
is  self-evident,  and  is  admitted.  The  disfranchising  con 
stitutions,  even  of  the  "grandfather"  type,  are  fair 
enough  upon  their  face,  revealing  to  the  eye  no  open 
discrimination  between  the  races.  So  much  had  to  be 
conceded  to  the  Fifteenth  Amendment.  But  every  one 
of  them  is  calculated,  intended  and  administered,  to  ex 
clude  the  Negro  from  the  suffrage,  whatever  his  char 
acter  and  qualifications,  while  admitting  to  it  every  white 
man,  however  ignorant,  worthless  or  depraved.  It  is 

183 


common  knowledge  that  many  of  the  most  distinguished 
personages  concerned  in  the  movement,  more  candid  if 
less  discreet  than  the  rest,  have  confessed  this  charge 
and  openly  exulted  in  it. 

A  new  feature  has  just  appeared  in  the  disfranchis 
ing  process  which  may  be  of  some  significance.  We 
read  in  the  newspapers  the  other  day  that  the  legisla 
ture  of  Florida  is  proposing  to  write  the  word  "white" 
plainly  into  the  constitutional  suffrage  qualification  of 
that  state,  openly  discarding  even  the  pretense  of  im 
partiality  between  the  races  which  thinly  veils  the  fraud 
in  other  states.  This  looks  as  though  the  white  South  is 
now  confident  that  the  country  has  abandoned  the  Negro 
and  that  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  may  be  openly 
repudiated.  The  Mississippi  senator  who  appears  to  be 
active  in  the  Florida  movement  probably  knows,  if  the 
Florida  legislature  does  not,  that  the  Supreme  Court  has 
often  declared  the  word  "white,"  if  found  in  the  suf 
frage  laws  of  a  state,  to  be  effaced  and  annulled  by  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment,  of  its  own  force.  In  view  of 
this,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  really  expect  to 
do  this  thing  effectively.  Whether  they  think  they  have 
discovered  a  new  device,  or  what  the  particular  pur 
pose  is,  I  do  not  undertake  to  say.  It  may  be  nothing 
but  a  mere  piece  of  bravado,  but  it  needs  watching. 

Now  let  us  see  how  disfranchisement  of  the  Negro 
affects  the  white  man.  The  Fourteenth  Amendment  ap 
portions  representatives  in  Congress  and  presidential 
electors  among  the  states  in  proportion  to  their  popula 
tion,  and  prescribes  that  if  the  suffrage  is  denied  or 
abridged  by  a  state  to  any  male  citizens  of  the  United 
States  of  voting  age,  its  representation  shall  be  reduced 
in  the  same  proportion.  At  least  ten  southern  states,  by 
fraud  or  intimidation,  under  the  forms  of  law  or  other 
wise,  have  practically  or  actually  disfranchised  the 
Negro.  These  ten  states  had  by  the  census  of  1900  a 

184 


population  of  15,926,955,  of  which  9,349,622  are  white 
and  6,565,894  colored.  They  have  3,675,454  male  citi 
zens  of  voting  age,  of  whom  2,238,720  are  white  and 
1,436,734  colored.  The  disfranchised  colored  citizens, 
a  million  and  a  half  in  round  numbers,  represent  a  col 
ored  population  of  six  and  a  half  millions.  These  ten 
states  elect  the  full  number  of  82  representatives  in  Con 
gress,  based  upon  their  whole  population,  and  the  same 
number  of  presidential  electors,  who  represent  2,238,- 
720  white  voters.  This  is  an  average  of  27,301  voters 
to  each  representative  and  elector.  In  the  other  thirty- 
six  states  of  the  Union,  17,122,940  voters  elect  309  re 
presentatives  and  presidential  electors,  an  average  of  55,- 
414  voters  to  each  representative  and  elector.  This  is 
more  than  double  the  number  which  exercises  the  same 
power  in  the  disfranchising  states.  A  white  vote  in 
these  states  outweighs,  in  the  federal  government,  two 
votes  of  any  color  in  the  other  states  of  the  Union.  A 
white  voter  in  these  states  goes  to  the  polls  with  some 
what  more  than  double  the  federal  power  of  any  voter 
in  the  other  states. 

In  fact,  the  situation  is  worse  than  this.  The  actual 
voting  oligarchy  in  the  disfranchising  states  is  but  a 
small  fraction  even  of  the  white  electorate.  I  have  not  at 
tempted  to  compile  any  recent  figures,  but  they  have  often 
been  published.  For  example,  it  is  said  that  the  con 
gressional  vote  of  a  single  district  in  Iowa  exceeds  the 
vote  which  elects  the  whole  congressional  delegation  of 
Louisiana ;  that  the  average  congressional  vote  in  each 
district  in  Ohio  exceeds  the  whole  congressional  vote  of 
Mississippi ;  and  that  the  vote  cast  in  electing  ten  con 
gressmen  in  Wisconsin  is  more  than  three  times  as  large 
as  that  cast  in  electing  twenty  congressmen  in  South 
Carolina,  Louisiana  and  Mississippi.  Any  white  voter,  in 
any  of  the  thirty-six  states  where  citizens  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  are  allowed  to  vote,  may  figure  out  for  him- 

185 


self,  at  his  leisure,  what  particular  fraction  of  his  own 
vote  the  disfranchising  states  allow  him  to  cast  in  the 
choice  of  the  federal  government. 

One  of  the  sorest  spots  in  the  old  slave  Constitution 
was  the  political  representation  of  three-fifths  of  the 
slaves,  giving  the  South  that  undue  share  of  political 
power.  The  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  intended  to 
set  this  right,  and  to  restore  and  maintain  for  all  time 
an  honest  balance  of  political  power  between  the  states. 
We  are  now  so  much  worse  off  than  we  were  then,  that 
whereas  but  three-fifths  of  the  Negroes  were  then  count 
ed  in  the  basis  of  representation,  the  whole  are  now 
counted  and  represented,  and  the  whole  political  power 
belonging  to  about  sixteen  millions  of  people  is  exer 
cised  by  a  white  electorate  representing  about  nine  mil 
lions.  Instead  of  carrying  us  forward  to  political  equal 
ity,  the  actual  results  of  the  war  have  carried  us  back 
ward  to  more  inequality. 

All  this  has  been  done  in  plain  and  open  disregard  and 
violation  of  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments. 
It  has  passed  into  a  political  truism  that  the  three 
amendments  of  the  Constitution  were  the  whole  fruits  of 
the  war.  We  have  suffered  ourselves  to  be  robbed  of 
the  fruits,  by  a  new  rebellion  against  the  federal  gov 
ernment,  in  which  the  states  of  the  late  Confederacy 
have  taken  and  hold  more  political  power  than  they  for 
merly  had  by  virtue  of  slavery  itself.  In  the  recent  bill 
'  of  Congressman  Bennet,  of  New  York,  to  enforce  the 
representation  clause  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment, 
based  upon  the  figures  of  the  census  of  1900,  it  appears 
that  the  ten  disfranchising  states  there  dealt  with,  now 
represented  on  the  basis  of  the  whole  population  by  82 
congressmen  and  the  same  number  of  electors,  are  en 
titled  to  but  50  congressmen  and  electors,  and  that  32 
representatives  and  electors  of  these  states  are  now  vot 
ing  in  Congress  and  in  the  election  of  president  and 

186 


vice-president  without   right,   and   in   open   violation   of 
the   federal  Constitution. 

It  was  long. hoped,  and  perhaps  believed,  that  the  ju 
dicial  remedy  for  disfranchisement  in  violation  of  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment  would  be  effective.  One  mistaken 
view  of  the  judicial  remedy  has  obtained  some  currency 
and  ought  to  be  corrected.  Mr.  Elaine  seems  to  have 
thought,  when  he  wrote  his  Twenty  Years  of  Con 
gress,  that  it  must  be  the  only  remedy.  He  there  ex 
pressed  the  view  that  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  direct 
ly  forbidding  discrimination  against  the  Negro  in  the 
suffrage,  superseded  the  representation  clause  of  the 
Fourteenth  which  appears  to  permit  it  at  the  pfrice  of 
reduced  representation;  that  as  the  Fifteenth  wholly 
forbids  denial  of  the  suffrage  on  the  ground  of  color,  a 
state  can  no  longer  deny  it,  or  be  found  or  held  to  have 
denied  it,  on  that  ground;  and  that  the  only  thing  to 
be  done  upon  violation  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  is 
to  appeal  to  the  courts.  In  this  he  was  plainly  wrong, 
and  his  view  has  not  been  and  is  not  to  be  accepted. 
The  Fourteenth  Amendment  is  not  a  permission  to  the 
states  to  deny  the  suffrage  to  any  class  of  citizens. 
Suffrage,  in  general,  is  the  affair  of  the  states.  They 
need  no  permission  of  the  federal  government  to  regu 
late  it.  This  Amendment  says  to  the  states:  If  the  Ne 
gro  is  not  admitted  to  the  suffrage,  the  Negro  shall  not 
be  counted  in  the  basis  of  representation.  The  Fifteenth 
Amendment  says  to  the  states :  While  you  may  regulate 
the  suffrage  to  suit  yourselves,  you  shall  not  deny  it  to 
the  Negro  merely  because  he  is  a  Negro.  This  does  not 
supersede  the  other  provision,  first,  because  there  is  no 
inconsistency  between  the  two,  the  later  being  cumulative 
and  supplemental,  not  repugnant,  to  the  other;  second, 
because  to  forbid  an  act  does  not  repeal  a  penalty  other 
wise  laid  upon  it ;  and  third,  because  the  judicial  rem 
edy,  under  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  may  be  sought  by 

187 


any  aggrieved  citizen,  and  perhaps  only  by  '  a  citizen, 
while  the  remedy  by  reduction  of  representation,  under 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  is  a  public  remedy,  enforce 
able  only  by  Congress,  which  the  additional  private 
remedy  under  the  Fifteenth  cannot  be  held  to  supersede 
or  disturb. 

And  further,  Congress  is  expressly  empowered  to  en 
force  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  by  "appropriate"  legis 
lation.  No  legislation  can  be  more  appropriate  than  to 
reduce  the  representation  of  a  disfranchising  state,  in 
pursuance  of  the  plain  mandate  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  that  its  representation  "shall  be  reduced" 
in  such  a  case.  In  framing  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  it 
may  have  been  foreseen,  as  the  case  has  actually  turned 
out  to  be,  that  the  suffrage  might  be  denied  or  abridged 
by  some  device  which  could  not  be  brought  to  the 
judicial  test,  or  that  the  court  might  hold  the  political 
remedy  to  be  exclusive.  It  may  be,  in  theory,  that  a  state 
is  incapable  of  doing  what  the  federal  Constitution  for 
bids  it  to  do,  so  that,  abstractly,  a  state  cannot  now  deny 
or  be  found  to  have  denied  the  suffrage  on  the  sole 
ground  of  color,  as  the  attempt  to  do  it  is  legally  void. 
But  this  is  mere  casuistry.  The  law  knows  no  such  re 
finement  as  to  assume  that  a  forbidden  act  cannot  be 
done  because  it  is  forbidden.  Such  an  assumption  would 
nullify  all  penal  legislation.  It  is  common  knowledge 
that  acts  forbidden  by  law  are  done,  and  punished,  every 
day.  The  Amendments  deal  with  facts,  not  theories,  and 
Congress  may  deal  with  the  facts,  'as  it  finds  them  to  be. 

The  two  Amendments  must  be  read  together.  Taken 
together,  they  mean  that  a  state  shall  not  deny  the  suf 
frage  to  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  on  the  sole 
ground  of  race,  color  or  previous  servitude,  but  if  ac 
tually  denied,  upon  this  or  any  other  ground,  it  shall 
be  at  the  cost  of  reduced  representation. 

It  is  now  familiar  that  the  Supreme  Court,  in  the  few 

188 


cases  which  have  reached  it,  has  avoided  the  direct  ques 
tion  of  the  conflict  of  the  disfranchising  constitutions 
with  the  Fifteenth  Amendment.  The  scheme  is  so  cun 
ningly  contrived  as  to  make  it  difficult  or  impossible  to 
present  an  effective  case.  The  court  has  not  yet  been 
squarely  faced  with  the  main  question,  and  has  plainly 
shown  a  reluctance  to  meet  it.  The  nearest  approach 
was  in  the  Alabama  case,*  in  1903,  where  the  subject  is 
briefly  surveyed,  and  a  majority  of  the  judges  declares 
the  court  incompetent  to  give  the  desired  relief.  If  this 
declaration  was  extra-judicial,  as  it  may  be  regarded, 
it  is  perhaps  the  more  significant  for  that  reason,  what 
ever  may  be  said  of  its  propriety.  In  this  and  other 
cases  the  judges  must  have  perceived  that  if  the  ques 
tion  is  forced  upon  the  court,  the  result  will  be  either 
to  sustain  a  patent  and  colossal  political  fraud,  or  to 
overturn  the  suffrage  systems  of  states  by  judicial  de 
cree.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  they  shrink  from  this  alterna 
tive.  I  think  that  the  Alabama  case  must  be  taken  as  a 
final  refusal  to  pass  upon  the  general  validity  of  the 
disfranchising  constitutions  if  the  question  can  possibly 
be  avoided. 

But  this  is  not  the  whole  of  the  Alabama  case.  The 
court  concludes  with  a  pregnant  declaration  that  relief 
from  such  a  political  wrong,  done  by  a  state  or  its  peo 
ple,  must  be  given  by  them,  "or  by  the  legislative  and 
political  department  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States."  That  there  is  a  complete  political  remedy  must 
have  been  apparent  to  the  court,  and  it  cannot  be  with 
out  significance  that  the  court  points  directly  to  the  polit 
ical  remedy,  in  turning  away  from  the  subject. 

While  the  judicial  remedy  for  disfranchisement  has 
thus  far  proved  delusive,  there  is  complete  power  in 
Congress  and  the  Executive  to  enforce  political  equality 


*Giles  v.  Harris,  189  U.  S.  475. 

189 


among  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  if  disposed  to 
enforce  it,  and  this  not  merely  under  the  Fourteenth  but 
under  Section  2  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  itself, 
which  declares,  as  in  the  other  war  Amendments,  that 
"the  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  Article 
by  appropriate  legislation." 

This  clause  of  the  Amendment  is  of  the  same  force  and 
significance  as  the  prohibitive  clause.  Plainly  the  Consti 
tution  has  not  left  its  enforcement  to  the  courts.  Congress 
has  express  power  to  "enforce"  its  provisions,  by  "appro 
priate"  legislation.  This  must  be  held  a  plenary  and  effec 
tive  power,  adequate  to  the  complete  enforcement  of  the 
prohibition  of  the  first  section.  What  is  "appropriate" 
legislation  for  this  purpose?  I  have  suggested  one  ex 
ample  of  it.  We  have  some  further  light  upon  this  ques 
tion.  In  the  Civil  Rights  cases,  and  others,  the  court 
has  held  that  the  similar  section  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  does  not  authorize  Congress  to  substitute 
for  unconstitutional  laws  of  a  state  a  new  code,  of  its 
own  making,  but  only  to  enact  "corrective  legislation, 
that  is,  such  as  may  be  necessary  and  proper  for  counter 
acting  such  laws  as  the  states  may  adopt  or  enforce, 
which,  by  the  Amendment,  they  are  prohibited  from 
making  or  enforcing,  or  such  acts  and  proceedings  as 
the  states  may  commit  or  take,  which,  by  the  Amend 
ment,  they  are  prohibited  from  committing  or  taking." 

Granting  that  Congress  may  not  directly  enact  that  the 
Negro  shall  be  allowed  to  vote  in  any  state,  under  this 
power  as  thus  expounded  it  may  at  least  declare  void, 
for  all  federal  purposes,  any  provisions  of  a  state  law  or 
constitution  which  it  finds  to  be  in  violation  of  the  Amend 
ment.  The  power  is  a  legislative  power,  to  be  exercised  by 
legislation.  A  legislative  body  proceeds  upon  facts  found 
or  ascertained  by  itself,  to  its  own  satisfaction.  It  needs 
no  other  authority  for  its  action,  and  if  it  acts  within  its 
constitutional  authority,  the  facts  upon  which  it  proceeds 

190 


cannot  be  questioned  or  its  action  disturbed.  All  this 
must  be  taken  as  known  and  intended  in  conferring  the 
power.  An  Act  of  Congress  declaring  a  law  or  system 
of  laws,  so  far  as  it  affects  the  federal  government,  to 
be  void  for  violation  of  the  Amendment,  is  not  con 
structive  but  is  strictly  corrective  legislation.  It  would 
at  once  furnish  sufficient  ground  for  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  to  purge  itself  of  members  who  have  no  right 
to  be  there.  It  would  be  the  plain  duty  of  the  House, 
notwithstanding  it  is  subject  to  no  control  in  dealing 
with  its  membership,  to  exclude  members  elected  under 
a  suffrage  system  found  and  declared  by  Congress  to  be 
void  for  violation  of  the  federal  Constitution.  It  would 
equally  be  the  duty  of  the  two  Houses  to  refuse  to  count 
the  votes  of  presidential  electors  chosen  under  such  a 
system.  This  proceeding  would  compel  reformation  of 
the  suffrage  system  of  the  disfranchising  states,  under 
the  alternative  of  possible  loss  of  their  whole  represen 
tation  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress  and  in  the  electoral 
body.  Probably  it  has  never  been  expected  that  the 
courage  of  Congress  would  rise  to  this  level  unless  un 
der  the  stress  of  some  future  political  exigency,  when 
it  might  again  be  found  that  there  is  "politics"  in  the 
Negro.  But  there  is  always  politics  in  the  white  man, 
and  this  is  a  white  man's  issue,  to  be  pressed  upon  the 
government  by  white  men.  Here  is  a  plain  remedy,  in 
the  hands  of  Congress.  If  applied,  it  cannot  justly  be 
complained  of.  If  not  applied,  every  voter  in  thirty- 
six  states  has  a  right  to  complain.  It  goes  directly  to 
the  end  which  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  intended  to 
secure.  It  does  not  by  any  means  exhaust  the  political 
remedies  under  this  Amendment,  but  it  is  enough  to  sug 
gest  the  possibilities  of  the  enforcement  clause,  and  to 
show  how  formidable  a  weapon  is  here  placed  in  the 
hands  of  Congress  to  restore  political  equality  among  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States. 

191 


Section  2  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  the  repre 
sentation  clause,  is  more  familiar,  but  even  this  has  not 
been  fully  explored.  It  declares  that  if  the  right  to  vote 
is  denied  "or  in  any  way  abridged,"  except  for  rebellion 
r>r  other  crime,  the  basis  of  representation  "shall  be  re 
duced"  in  the  same  proportion.  The  penalty  is  not  lim 
ited  to  direct  denial  of  the  suffrage.  The  clause  "or  in 
any  way  abridged"  is  no  less  significant  and  effective 
than  the  other.  Not  merely  "denied,"  not  merely 
"abridged,"  but  for  further  and  complete  assurance,  "in 
any  way  abridged,"  is  the  law.  No  secret,  covert  or 
sinister  scheme,  however  cunningly  contrived,  by  which 
abridgement  may  be  effected  without  direct  denial,  shall 
prevail.  Nothing  could  meet  the  "grandfather"  device,  or 
the  "understanding"  device,  more  directly  than  this.  It 
seems  as  though  the  framers  of  the  Amendment,  with 
prophetic  foresight,  had  anticipated  what  now  has  actu 
ally  been  done,  and  fitted  the  Amendment  to  the  facts. 
Adroitly  as  the  disfranchising  constitutions  have  avoid 
ed  direct  denial  of  the  suffrage  to  the  Negro,  it  can 
avail  them  nothing.  Neither  court  nor  Congress  could 
hesitate  in  finding  that  the  suffrage  is  abridged  to  the 
Negro  in  the  administration  of  the  system,  if  not  directly 
denied  by  its  terms,  and  this  is  violation  of  the  Amend 
ment. 

Under  this  clause  there  is  a  complete  remedy  for  dis- 
franchisement  in  the  hands  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  by  itself.  It  is  not  prescribed  that  Congress  may 
reduce  the  representation  of  a  disfranchising  state. 
Upon  denial  or  abridgement  of  the  suffrage,  its  represen 
tation  "shall  be  reduced."  It  is  judicially  declared  and 
settled  that  the  War  Amendments  are  intended  to  be, 
and  are,  of  automatic  action  and  self-executing,  so  far 
as  they  can  be  without  the  aid  of  legislation.  A  plain 
and  conceded  purpose  of  this  section  is  to  correct  the 
inequality  of  the  old  Constitution  by  excluding  from  the 

192 


basis  of  representation  any  part  of  the  population  which 
is  not  represented  in  the  electorate ;  in  short,  to  forbid 
and  prevent  any  representation  of  any  state  not  based 
upon  a  voting  population,  the  states  having  the  choice 
to  confer  the  suffrage  and  have  the  representation  or 
withhold  the  suffrage  and  lose  it. 

Read  in  its  full  meaning,  the  Amendment  prescribes 
that  if  a  state  withholds  the  suffrage  from  any  class  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States  its  Representation  shall 
thereby  stand  as  reduced,  ipso  facto,  in  the  same  propor 
tion.  A  proportionate  part  of  its  right  to  representation 
ceases  to  exist,  contemporaneously  with  denial  or  abridg 
ment  of  the  suffrage,  and  from  that  moment  it  has  no  con 
stitutional  right  to  send  any  representatives  to  Congress, 
or  choose  any  presidential  electors,  except  such  number  as 
may  stand  upon  the  reduced  basis.  Upon  finding  of  the 
fact  of  denial  or  abridgment  of  the  suffrage,  the  propor 
tionate  reduction  of  representation  follows  as  a  necessary 
consequence.  The  House  of  Representatives  may  find 
this  fact,  and  deal  with  representation  accordingly,  with 
out  any  concurrent  action  of  the  Senate  or  the  Executive. 

Every  representative  sent  from  a  disfranchising  state 
since  the  disfranchising  process  began,  in  excess  of  this 
reduced  number,  has  been  sent  without  authority,  and  has 
occupied  his  seat  without  right  or  title.  The  House  of 
Representatives  would  have  been  legally  warranted,  at 
any  time  since  Mississippi  disfranchised  the  Negro  in  1891, 
in  refusing  to  admit  any  delegation  from  a  disfranchis 
ing  state.  When  such  a  delegation  appears,  it  is  known 
that  its  number  exceeds  the  number  which  the  state  has 
a  constitutional  right  to  send,  and  as  they  all  stand  upon 
the  same  ground  and  are  alike  subject  to,  the  same  in 
firmity,  the  House  cannot  distinguish  between  them  and 
is  not  called  upon  to  admit  either  or  any  of  them.  It  is 
for  any  state  to  make  the  title  of  each  of  its  represen 
tatives  good,  by  sending  only  such  number  as  the  Con- 

193 


stitution  authorizes.  A  suffrage  system  in  violation  of 
tljfe  federal  Constitution  is,  so  far  as  it  affects  the  fed 
eral  government,  void  as  an  entirety,  and  no  represen 
tative  claiming  to  be  elected  under  such  a  system  can 
show  a  constitutional  title  to  a  seat  in  Congress. 

It  has  heretofore  been  assumed  that  reduction  of  rep 
resentation  under  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  can  be  ef 
fected  only  by  an  Act  of  Congress  in  the  form  of  which 
Congressman  Bennet's  bill  is  the  latest  example,  declar 
ing  the  number  of  representatives  which  each  disfranchis 
ing  state  is  entitled  to  elect,  and  requiring  the  state  to  re 
construct  its  districts  accordingly  or  to  elect  at  large  the 
proper  number  and  no  more.  While  this  method  of 
procedure  is  preferable,  especially  as  it  conclusively  set 
tles  the  title  of  the  state  to  presidential  electors  no  less 
than  to  representatives,  it  is  not  legally  necessary.  The 
House  of  Representatives  has  power  enough  in  its  own 
hands. 

If  these  remedies  for  disfranchisement  appear  extreme, 
it  is  only  because  the  people  of  the  country  at  large,  in 
their  indifference  to  the  fate  of  the  Negro,  have  over 
looked  the  crime  against  their  own  political  rights.  They 
are  directly  within  the  terms  and  intent  of  the  Consti 
tution,  they  are  essential  to  the  supremacy  of  the  federal 
power,  they  are  demanded  in  order  to  restore  political 
equality  among  all  the  states  and  all  citizens  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  and  it  is  the  plain  duty  of  the  government  to 
apply  them.  If  the  power  is  doubted,  as  the  Supreme 
Court  once  said  in  a  similar  case,  "it  is  only  because 
the  Congress,  through  long  habit  and  long  years  of  for 
bearance  has,  in  deference  and  respect  to  the  states, 
refrained  from  the  exercise  of  these  powers,  that  they 
are  now  doubted."  Action  of  Congress  in  this  direc 
tion,  or  even  a  near  prospect  of  it,  would  bring  the 
disfranchising  states  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the  danger 
involved  in  their  open  defiance  of  the  organic  law.  The 

194 


men  who  shaped  the  War  Amendments,  and  the  people 
who  wrote  them  into  the  federal  charter,  could  not  have 
conceived  that  there  should  ever  be  any  hesitation  to 
enforce  them  under  such  conditions  as  now  confront  us. 

The  application  of  this  remedy  will  at  least  restore 
political  equality  among  the  states  and  among  the  white 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  it  will  not  stop  here. 
It  will  accomplish  what  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was 
designed  to  accomplish,  by  establishing  impartial  suf 
frage  and  equality  of  political  rights  among  all  citizens 
of  the  United  States  without  distinction  based  upon  race 
or  color.  No  state  will  willingly  pay  the  price  of  re 
duced  representation  for  the  luxury  of  depriving  all  Ne 
groes  of  the  ballot.  So  long  as  ten  states  are  allowed, 
without  interference  or  remonstrance,  to  enjoy  this  priv 
ilege  and  at  the  same  time  to  retain  and  exercise  all  the 
political  power  of  which  the  disfranchised  Negroes  are 
despoiled,  they  can  hardly  be  expected  to  surrender  it. 
So  long  as  we  remain  dumb  and  subservient,  we  cannot 
hold  them  alone  responsible  for  the  consequences. 

Here  is  a  plain  question,  which  ought  to  be  put  to  the 
country  and  answered  by  the  country.  Are  the  people 
of  thirty-six  states  willing  to  be  defrauded  of  their  own 
political  rights  in  order  that  ten  states  may  disfranchise 
the  Negro?  Have  we  so  fallen  from  the  estate  of  our 
fathers  that,  while  they  vigorously  remonstrated  against 
lawful  representation  of  three-fifths  of  the  Negroes, 
sanctioned  by  the  Constitution,  we  will  submit  to  un 
lawful  representation  of  all  the  Negroes  in  defiance  of 
the  Constitution?  This  question,  once  fairly  presented, 
cannot  be  put  aside  until  it  is  settled,  and  it  will  not  be 
settled  until  the  political  rights  of  every  citizen  of  the 
United  States  are  recognized  and  enforced. 

The  effective  nullification  of  the  Fifteenth  Amend 
ment  is  now  followed  by  a  concerted  movement  to  pre 
pare  the  public  mind  for  its  formal  abrogation.  If 


such  a  movement  can  succeed,  it  will  not  stop  with 
the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  but  the  representation  clause 
of  the  Fourteenth  will  be  the  next  object  of  attack. 
With  both  of  these  clauses  of  the  Constitution  out  of 
the  way,  they  will  have  the  Negro  where  they  want  to 
put  him,  and  they  will  have  us  where  they  want  to  put 
us.  The  president  takes  notice  of  this  in  his  inaugural 
address,  where  he  declares  that  the  Fifteenth  Amendment 
will  never  be  repealed,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  "observed." 
It  ought  to  be  enforced.  Until  enforced  it  is  virtually 
repealed.  It  is  a  part  of  his  official  duty  to  see  that  it 
is  enforced.  Will  he  do  it?  He  owes  the  people  of  me 
United  States  an  answer  to  this  question.  The  people 
owe  it  to  themselves  to  see  that  it  is  answered,  and  there 
is  but  one  possible  answer. 

It  is  not  the  part  of -patriotism  or  of  statesmanship 
to  trifle  with  this  subject.  If  the  organization  and  con 
trol  of  the  House  of  Representatives  should  turn  upon 
the  thirty-odd  votes  now  unlawfully  retained  by  the 
white  South,  the  subject  would  be  precipitated  into  poli 
tics  in  a  day,  not  as  a  question  of  principle,  or  for  the 
assertion  of  any  principle,  but  upon  the  lowest  level,  as 
a  means  of  perpetuating  the  power  of  the  dom 
inant  party.  If  a  presidential  election  should  turn 
upon  the  thirty-odd  electoral  votes  now  under  the 
same  unlawful  control,  there  would  be  a  struggle  for 
possession  of  the  government  to  which  tne  contest  of 
1876  was  but  a  passing  breeze.  Out  of  this  issue,  if 
forced  upon  us  under  such  conditions,  a  storm  may 
arise  which  will  shake  the  federal  structure  to  its  foun 
dations.  It  is  a  plain  duty  to  press  the  subject  upon  the 
attention  of  the  country  until  public  sentiment  compels 
the  government  to  act.  If  deaf  to  the  disfranchised 
Negro  it  will  hear  the  disfranchised  white  man,  and  the 
act  which  takes  care  of  the  white  man  will  take  care  of 
the  Negro. 

196 


Afternoon  Session,  June  1 

Mr.  Oswald  Garrison  Villard,  Chairman 


THE  NEED  OF  ORGANIZATION 

Mr.  Oswald  Garrison  Villard 

of 

New  York 

I  beg  to  report  on  behalf  of  your  committee  on  organi 
zation  that  it  has  seemed  from  the  very  inception  of  this 
movement  desirable  that  some  permanent  body  should 
grow  out  of  this  gathering.  Hence  your  committee  has 
found  no  difficulty  in  deciding  that  these  conferences  at 
least  should  become  annual  events.  When  music  teach 
ers,  dancing  masters,  commercial  travellers,  secret 
orders  galore,  and  associations  of  college  graduates  find 
it  worth  their  while  to  meet  annually;  when  the  an 
nual  arbitration  meetings  and  conferences  on  the  status 
of  the  North  American  Indian  at  Mohonk  have  so  clear 
ly  demonstrated  their  value,  it  seems  perfectly  obvious 
that  those  men  and  women  who  believe  that  the  welfare 
of  the  republic  is  bound  up  with  fair  play  towards  the 
Negro,  with  giving  him  exact  justice  and  exact  equality 
before  the  law,  should  come  together  once  every  twelve 
months  for  encouragement,  for  information,  for  inspi 
ration.  Your  committee  recommends,  therefore,  that 
there  be  appointed  by  the  Chair  a  committee  of  not  more 
than  thirty  persons  who  shall  be  charged  with  the  duty 
of  calling  the  conference  together  in  1910  and  with 
forming  a  permanent  organization  which  shall  have  still 
further  and  vastly  more  important  duties.  Your  com- 

197 


mittee  bespeaks  your  approval  of  its  plan  to  bring  about 
the  establishment  of  a  permanent,  incorporated  national 
committee,  to  forward  the  interests  of  the  Negro  and  to 
combat  race  prejudice  in  the  United  States.  In  explan 
ation  of  this  proposal,  I  beg  leave  to  say  a  few  words. 

"The  timidity  of  our  public  opinion  is  our  disease,  or, 
shall  I  say  the  publicness  of  opinion,  the  absence  of  pri 
vate  opinion,"  Emerson  once  declared.  No  one  who  is 
to-day  interested  in  the  progress  upwards  of  the  colored 
race,  the  maintenance  intact  of  all  its  rights  and  privi 
leges,  can  dispute  the  evident  application,  of  these  words 
to  latter-day  conditions.  There  is  getting  to  be  an  ab 
sence  of  private  opinion  on  questions  concerning  col 
ored  men  and  women  in  certain  circles  of  the  North, 
which  in  itself  makes  clear  the  undertakit.-g  of  a  system 
atic  effort  to  place  the  facts  in  regard  to  our  colored  cit 
izens  before  the  American  nation.  In  the  absence  of  an 
enlightened  individual  opinion,  it  is  easy  enough  for  the 
multitude  to  accept  for  truisms  certain  allegations  in  re 
gard  to  colored  people  which  float  up  to  us  from  the 
South  or  have  their  origin  in  equally  prejudiced  quar 
ters  in  the  North.  For  race  prejudice  knows  no  geo 
graphical  distinctions ;  it  is  hemmed  in  no  more  by  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line  than  was  slavery  successfully  curtailed 
by  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820.  It  was  always  to  be 
found  in  the  North  in  slavery  days — was  not  Prudence 
Crandall's  school  for  colored  children  burned  in  Con 
necticut  in  1834? — precisely  as  it  is  to  be  found  in  Prus 
sia,  Russia,  and  Austria  to-day,  though  along  other  lines 
than  those  in  which  it  manifests  itself  in  our  own  coun 
try.  Of  late,  with  us,  there  is  every  evidence  that  a 
systematic  effort  is  being  made  to  win  over  to  the  exact 
view  of  the  South  the  bulk  of  northern  opinion.  Sena 
tor  Tillman  of  South  Carolina  did  us  the  very  great  ser 
vice  the  other  day  of  setting  forth  in  the  frankest  of 
language  the  southern  programme  at  the  dinner  of  the 

198 


South  Carolina  society,  in  this  city.  "At  the  same  time/' 
he  said,  "I  want  to  speak  of  the  great  change  that  has 
come  over  the  North  in  the  last  few  years.  One  reason 
for  this  is-  that  the  old  abolitionists  are  dying  out,  and 
we  only  find  the  agitator  in  some  old  soldier,  who  is 
drawing  a  pension  he  never  earned,  and  who  never  saw 
a  Confederate  soldier,  but  who  has  of  late  years  become 
a  great  warrior.  Fifteen  years  after  the  North  tried  to 
pass  a  force  bill  to  let  Negroes  vote,  the  President  of 
the  United  States  declares  that  he  will  not  appoint  an 
officer  to  the  government  service  who  is  obnoxious  to  us. 

"They  say  we  must  enforce  the  laws  impartially,  and 
we  say  we  will  not.  We  have  nullified  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  and  in  every  southern  state  the  Negro  is 
disfranchised.  We  hear  much  about  the  'grandfather 
clause'  in  our  voting  qualification.  The  reason  we  put 
that  in  is  to  give  the  poor  white  men  who  cannot  read 
a  chance  to  vote  and  to  disfranchise  the  Negro. 

"The  Negro  to-day  is  a  Republican  asset.  He  holds 
the  balance  of  power  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  Ohio,  In 
diana,  and  Illinois.  And  so  long  as  the  Republicans  con 
tinue  to  use  him  as  a  political  asset  it  is  our  duty  to  be 
true  to  the  civilization  of  our  fathers  and  to  educate  the 
North,  as  we  have  been  doing  during  the  last  ten  years." 

Now,  if  there  were  no  other  reason  than  this  speech 
of  Senator  Tillman  for  calling  this  conference,  that 
would  be  enough.  It  affords  in  itself  plenty  of  reason 
for  beginning  a  scientifically  planned  and  aggressive 
movement  on  behalf  of  the  Negro's  rights  even  if  there 
were  no  such  words  in  our  language  as  justice,  equality, 
fair  pl~y,  and  national  good  faith. 

The  enlightened  traveller  who  comes  to  this  country 
from  Europe,  whether  it  be  Dr.  Earth  from  Germany, 
or  H.  G.  Wells  or  Sir  Harry  Johnston  from  England,  to 
study  our  social  and  racial  conditions,  is  usually  appalled 
at  the  prejudice  against  the  Negro  he  encounters.  The 

199 


though ful  foreigner  soon  asks  what  self-defence  organ 
izations  the  colored  people  and  their  white  sympathizers 
have  formed.  Where,  he  asks,  is  your  national  steer 
ing  committee,  like  those  that  have  constituted  themselves 
in  Europe  to  watch  over  and  guard  the  interests  of  the 
Jewish  race?  He  learns  that  there  is  none.  "What,"  he 
says,  "have  you  no  group  of  national  leaders,  like  those 
which  have  for  decades  fought  the  battles  of  the  Irish 
people  in  and  out  of  Parliament?"  Again  the  answer 
must  be  no.  "Surely,"  he  gasps,  "there  is  some  militant 
committee,  like  that  of  the  Prussian  Poles,  which  has  thus 
far  successfully  defeated  the  efforts  of  the  Prussian  gov 
ernment  to  make  its  Polish  subjects  abandon  their  lan 
guage,  their  customs,  yes,  even  their  lands?"  Again  the 
reply  must  be  in  the  negative.  Our  puzzled  foreign 
friend  may  next  ask  about  the  educational  status  of  the 
Negroes.  He  learns  that  Congress  grants  no  federal  aid 
of  any  consequence,  and  that  it  does  not  interfere  with 
the  laws  of  any  state  in  regard  to  public  education.  So 
he  asks :  "Of  course,  there  is  some  national  organization 
which  deals  solely  with  Negro  education?"  To  this  the 
only  reply  that  can  be  given  is  that  there  are  several 
funds  which  contribute  more  or  less — mostly  less — to 
colored  schools,  but  the  problem  has  never  been  ap 
proached  in  a  thoroughgoing,  systematic,  or  scientific 
way;  that  in  the  main  the  schools  specially  founded  to 
aid  the  colored  people  rely  upon  haphazard  contributions 
from  a  generous  public.  As  a  result,  they  are  without 
proper  guidance  or  supervision,  and  there  flourish  side 
by  side  with  effective  institutions  ineffective  ones,  and 
even  some  which  exist  solely  for  the  salaries  they  pay  to 
teachers. 

When  our  foreigner  has  finished  wondering  at  this 
state  of  affairs  his  next  question  is  for  the  name  of  that 
militant  organization  which  battles  incessantly  for  the 
civil  and  political  rights  of  the  Negro.  Here  his  infor- 


200 


mant  is  not  quite  as  much  at  loss,  for  there  exists,  among 
other  useful  societies,  the  Constitution  League  that  has 
so  manfully  fought  the  battle  of  the  shamefully  ill-treated 
Brownsville  soldiers  and  is  seeking  to  obtain  from  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  decisions  which 
shall  fortify  the  Negro  in  his  right.  There  is  the  ad 
mirable  Niagara  movement ;  but  even  this  and  the  similar 
organizations  have  not  yet  established  a  legal  aid  bureau. 
One  of  the  best  and  most  useful  philanthropies  in  New 
York  City  is  the  Legal  Aid  Society,  which  gives  free  legal 
advice  and  aid  to  the  poor.  If  this  work  has  demon 
strated  its  usefulness  in  a  city,  would  it  not  be  a  thou 
sandfold  more  useful  when  applied  to  a  race?  More  than 
that,  the  inhabitants  of  the  teeming  East  and  West  Sides 
of  New  York  do  not  begin  to  need  legal  protection  as  do 
the  Negroes  of  the  South,  and  at  times  those  of  the 
North.  We  do  not  hear  of  any  blind  member  of  our 
local  foreign  population  being  tied  up  and  flogged  with 
a  rawhide  whip  to  make  him  confess ;  we  have  not  yet 
heard  of  any  man's  being  lynched  in  Essex  Street  because 
someone  accused  him  of  a  heinous  crime.  We  have  never 
heard  of  New  Yorkers  being  run  out  of  town,  their 
lives  endangered,  their  families  abused,  their  property 
destroyed,  merely  because  they. happened  to  be  considered 
too  prosperous,  too  well-to-do,  to  suit  their  neighbors  of 
another  race.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate  the 
thousand  and  one  crimes  against  colored  people,  nor  to 
remind  this  assembly  that  a  Negro  in  the  South  is  never 
tried  by  his  peers,  but  always  by  a  jury  that  consists  of 
men  whose  consciousness  of  their  superiority  would 
rouse  them  to  bitter  anger  if  any  one  remarked  that 
they  were  but  the  equals  of  the  prisoner  at  the  bar.  Nev 
er  has  a  race  needed  more  a  strong  central  legal  bureau 
able  to  employ  the  ablest  counsel  to  prosecute  men  who 
kill  and  call  it  law ;  ever  ready  to  insist  upon  the  punish 
ment  of  guilty  officials,  and  to  cure  the  lynching  evil  by 


201 


prosecuting  lax  authorities  and  bringing  civil  suits  for 
damages  against  the  local  or  county  authorities. 

Realizing  to  the  full  the  justice  of  the  criticisms  of 
the  foreigners  who  come  to  us,  your  committee,  whose 
interest  in  the  colored  race  is  nothing  new,  but  is  based 
upon  experience  and  study  of  years  therefore  believes 
that  the  time  has  come  for  a  committee  or  a  board  or  a 
limited  society  which  shall  do  for  the  colored  people  what 
the  Zionist  committees  do  for  the  Jews ;  what  the  Prus 
sian  Polish  Committee  has  done  for  the  Poles,  and  the 
Irish  committees  for  their  wronged  people.  This  board 
should  have  a  national  charter  and  be  regularly  incor 
porated  so  as  to  be  perpetual  and  to  be  able  to  seek  and 
to  receive  large  amounts  of  money  by  donations  or  be 
quests.  If  there  ever  was  a  case  where  millions  should 
be  given  it  is  this  one ;  and  your  committee  believes  that 
if  such  a  board  should  be  well  established  and  well-man 
ned  it  would  have  no  difficulty  in  raising,  in  time,  large 
sums.  The  colored  people  would  contribute  just  as  soon 
as  convinced,  first,  of  the  sincerity  and  unselfishness  of 
the  enterprise ;  second,  of  its  absolute  independence  of 
any  of  the  factions  within  the  race ;  third,  that  it  was  on 
a  scientific  and  an  efficient  basis,  and  fourth,  that  it  was 
wedded  to  no  particular  form  of  education,  but  to  all 
forms  of  education.  Mr.  Richard  R.  Wright,  jr.,  esti 
mates  that  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States  have  paid 
in  direct  property  and  poll  taxes  for  schools  no  less  than 
$45,000,000  during  the  last  forty  years,  besides  $15,- 
000,000  through  their  churches.  It  is  not  leaving  the 
realm  of  the  credible,  therefore,  to  believe  that  they 
could  be  got  to  contribute  large  sums  to  the  endowment 
of  the  national  board  proposed. 

It  would  be  difficult  in  the  time  allotted  to  me  to  enu 
merate  all  the  beneficent  possibilities  of  such  a  board, 
but  there  could  be  no  more  important  duty  for  it  than 
to  spread  the  truth  about  the  colored  people.  Every 


202 


lynching  should  be  investigated  by  a  competent  commit 
tee;  every  injustice  to  the  Negro  should  spread  through 
out  the  press ;  the  marvellous  achievements  of  the 
colored  people  set  forth  in  their  true  colors,  and  above 
all  a  campaign  of  education  of  the  white  people  carried 
on.  One  of  the  foremost  leaders  of  the  new  movement 
for  education  in  the  South  stated  privately  the  other  day 
that  if  he  had  a  million  dollars  he  would  devote  it  to 
the  education  of  the  educated  white  people  of  the  South, 
and  it  is  a  most  encouraging  fact  that  in  this  undertak 
ing  he  would  have  the  aid  of  a  growing  number  of  white 
people,  who  have  seen  the  light — men  like  former  Con 
gressman  Fleming  of  Georgia,  Prof.  John  Spencer  Bas- 
sett,  President  Denny  of  Washington  and  L!ee  Univer 
sity,  the  Rev.  Quincy  Ewing  of  Louisiana,  and  many 
others  whose  writings  should  go  into  every  household  of 
the  South.  The  publicity  bureau  of  this  board  should 
then  comprise  a  research  section  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
the  kind  so  admirably  done  under  Dr.  Du  Bois's  direc 
tion,  at  Atlanta  University,  and  in  co-operation  there 
with  a  press  section  in  charge  of  an  accomplished  news 
paper  man. 

The  political  and  civil  rights  bureau  of  our  national 
board  would  naturally  be  its  most  important  undertak 
ing,  for  it  would  bend  its  energies  to  bringing  about  the  en 
forcement  of  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments, 
to  obtaining  court  decisions  upon  the  disfranchising  laws 
and  other  discriminatory  legislation.  For  this  purpose 
it  should  have  at  its  disposal  sufficient  money  to  employ 
the  highest  legal  talent  obtainable  and  to  pay  the  heavy 
cost  of  carrying  up  to  the  Supreme  Court  case  after  case 
until  that  shifting  and  evasive  body  is  compelled  to  de 
cide  whether  there  shall  be  two  degrees  of  citizenship  in 
this  country,  whether  there  shall  be  separate  laws  for  one 
class  of  human  beings  and  others  for  different  human 
beings ;  whether  special  privilege  in  its  most  obnoxious 

203 


form  shall  have  legal  sanction,  and  whether  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  shall  be  permanently  vio 
lated.  A  non-partisan  body  like  our  proposed  board 
could  often  do  this  with  greater  effectiveness  than  any 
organization  of  voters  as  such,  for  it  would  in  no  wise 
enter  the  political  field  for  the  purpose  of  electing  this 
or  that  candidate,  but  confine  itself  battling  for  princi 
ples,  for  civic  rights,  for  an  untarnished  Constitution. 

The  education  bureau  of  our  board  would  find  a  broad 
field  in  uplifting  the  standards  of  Negro  schools  and  col 
leges,  in  improving  their  business  methods,  devising  less 
wasteful  plans  of  raising  funds,  and,  if  sufficiently  equip 
ped,  in  making  donations  to  worthy  institutions  of  all 
classes.  Our  proposed  industrial  bureau  should  deal  with 
the  colored  man  in  relation  to  labor;  it  might  take  over 
in  this  city  the  functions  of  that  excellent  body  which 
seeks  to  create  additional  industrial  opportunities  for 
colored  workers,  and  could  found  and  aid  similar  socie 
ties  in  other  industrial  centres.  It  could  concern  itself 
with  the  whole  question  of  housing  and  of  land  owning, 
both  urban  and  rural,  and  could,  if  it  were  deemed  ad 
visable,  make  large  purchases  of  land  for  re-sales  to  col 
ored  people.  In  the  possession  of  land  lie  enormous 
strength  and  defensive  power.  The  Poles  in  Prussia,  ow 
ing  to  their  enormous  land  holdings,  have  successfully 
defied  every  effort  of  the  government  they  hate  to  Prus 
sianize  them  until  that  tyrannical  government  has  found 
itself  compelled,  as  a  last  resort,  to  deprive  them  by 
force  of  their  land  holdings.  There  is  surely  a  lesson  in 
this  that  we  cannot  too  rapidly  acquire  land  for  colored 
farmers  and  workers  in  all  sections  of  our  country.  The 
question  of  emigration,  of  moving  large  bodies  of  col 
ored  people  from  one  section  to  another,  is  another  one 
with  which  a  national  board  might  well  concern  itself, 
for  therein,  too,  lies  a  weapon  of  great  usefulness  in  the 
compelling  of  justice. 

204 


To  mention  only  one  more  function  of  our  proposed 
board,  it  should  be  equipped  to  aid  the  individual  colored 
man  of  merit,  as  well  as  a  meritorious  community,  by 
giving  him  the  best  education  possible  and  then  placing 
him  where  he  can  be  of  the  greatest  service  to  his  peo 
ple.  We  see  too  many  colored  physicians  in  the  cities 
and  too  few  in  the  rural  districts ;  there  are  too  many 
Negroes  capable  of  earning  $5,000  a  year  at  $2,000  jobs. 
Where  a  splendid  intellect  is  discovered,  we  want  to  set 
it  tasks  that  will  make  it  worth  one  hundred  cents  on  the 
dollar  to  both  races  of  this  country,  and  not  confine  it  to 
duties  which  a  $1,200  man  can  perform  just  as  well. 

In  other  words,  in  this  era  of  organized  publicity  and 
of  combinations  of  capital  and  brains  in  every  field  of 
human  endeavor  your  committee  believes  that  the  white 
friends  of  the  Negro  and  the  Negro  himself  should  fall 
in  line  with  the  times  and  use  the  very  best  tools  for  his 
defence  and  his  advancement.  Never  was  it  truer  that 
there  is  strength  in  union ;  never  was  it  plainer  that  the 
emergency  demanded  the  most  efficient  means  of  appeal 
ing  to  the  conscience  and  the  hearts  of  the  American 
people.  At  heart  the  great  masses  are  sound  on  every 
question — if  one  can  but  get  the  facts  before  them.  What 
would  have  seemed  more  hopeless  than  an  attempt  to 
stir  the  national  conscience  at  the  time  of  the  founding 
of  the  "Liberator"?  Is  not  to-day  every  great  crusade, 
whether  on  behalf  of  child  labor,  the  conservation  of 
our  national  resources,  or  the  warfare  on  tuberculosis, 
conducted  on  precisely  these  lines  suggested — with  a  pub 
licity  bureau  and  a  national  committee?  If  our  plan 
seems  a  counsel  of  perfection,  let  us  in  truth  hitch  our 
wagon  to  a  star  and  devote  our  lives,  if  necessary,  to  its 
realization.  Some  of  us  are  willing  to  give  freely  of  our 
strength  and  our  time  to  it,  because  we  are  convinced 
that  its  infinite  possibilities  of  usefulness  to  our  coun 
try  will  be  limited  only  by  its  finances,  and  that  alliance 

205 


with  such  a  board  would  mean  patriotic  service  of  the 
highest  degree  to  all  our  people,  white  or  black  or  yellow. 
With  this  feeling  we  ask  the  adoption  of  our  resolution 
and  your  support  for  our  great  project.  We  are  happy 
to  add  that  two  of  the  most  useful  of  the  political  organ 
izations  fighting  for  the  Negroes'  rights  are  ready  to  co 
operate  with  or  coalesce  with  our  proposed  board,  which 
ever  seems  best.  They  are  ready  to  join  us  in  creating 
a  body  which  shall  bring  home  to  the  heart  of  every  man 
whom  it  can  reach  the  existence  of  gross  injustice  and 
oppression  in  this  land  of  the  free  and  home  of  the 
brave  and  shall  never  let  the  nation  forget  that  il  has  a 
vital,  pressing  race-problem  on  its  hands  until  that  prob 
lem  is  settled  in  consonance  with  the  principles  of  an 
exact  justice. 


206 


EFFECT   ON   POOR   WHITES   OF   DIS 
CRIMINATION  AGAINST  NEGROES 

Hon.  Joseph  C.  Manning 

of 

Alabama 

Growing  out  of  the  attitude  of  the  controling  element 
in  the  South  towards  the  Negro,  as  a  consequence  of  the 
ingenious  exploitation  of  the  race  problem  there  is  no  con 
stitutional  or  free  government  in  any  immediate  south 
ern  state.  There  is  not'  a  state  in  the  group  of  the  far 
southern  states  that  is  not  dominated  by  a  brutal  political 
minority  of  the  whites,  without  mention  of  the  suppres 
sion  of  all  blacks. 

This  political  savagery  is  clamped  together  by  intrigue 
and  cunning.  It  holds  sway  through  written  and  un 
written  processes  made  possible  by  as  artful  a  system 
of  strategy  as  could  find  crafty  conveyance  in  forms  of 
state  constitutional  law.  These  compacts,  these  state 
oligarchies,  are  absolutely  without  any  political  moral 
cohesive  force  to  hold  them  together.  It  is  necessary, 
therefore,  to  make  secure  their  domination  that  this 
regime  should  not  only  beat  down  and  oppress  all  blacks, 
but  should  extend  this  system  of  exploitation  until  it  sub 
merges  the  liberties  of  a  majority  of  whites. 

The  next  census  will  no  doubt  show  that  there  are 
300,000  whites  of  voting  age  in  Alabama.  It  will  show 
the  number  of  Negroes  of  over  21  years  of  age, 
males,  to  be  about  200,000.  As  a  result  of  the  opera 
tions,  of  the  swing  of  the  Bourbon  axe,  as  an  outcome  of 

207 


the  machinations  of  the  oligarchy,  the  election  year  of 
1910  will  disclose  the  fact  that  the  whole  number  of 
whites  in  Alabama  out  of  the  voting — who  do  not  and 
who  can  not  vote,  by  reason  of  the  workings  and  ag 
gressions  of  our  peculiar  southern  political  institutions — 
will  equal  the  entire  number  of  male  blacks  of  voting 
age. 

This  condition  is  ingeniously  explained  away  by  the 
degenerate  statesmanship  of  the  South  and  is  now  very 
readily  accepted  by  the  duped  political  leadership  of  the 
North  as  wholly  necessary  to  uphold  white  supremacy; 
whereas  these  regimes  have  swept  away  and  submerged 
the  political  rights  of  whites  just  as  brutally  as  they  have 
pressed  this  iron  heel  of  political  despotism  on  all  blacks. 

Those  most  responsible  for  this  situation  are  of  the 
same  flesh,  the  same  families,  the  same  sentiments  as 
what  is  known  in  our  southern  history  as  the  slave  own 
ing  political  and  social  aristocracy.  This  regime  domin 
ating  Alabama  now  is  simply  the  progeny  of  the  old  slave- 
owning  oligarchy.  The  attitude  of  these  men  to  the  Negro 
is  no  unknown  thing  to  the  nation,  but  the  astounding 
way  in  which  this  aggression  has  been  permitted  to  march 
forward  in  its  brutal  political  despotism  is  not  compre 
hended,  in  all  its  various  and  vicious  aspects. 

These  men  who,  by  reason  of  their  being  born  and 
bred  into  antipathy  to  the  Negro,  do  not  hesitate  to  with 
hold  from  him  the  political  rights  which  the  American 
Constitution  says  that  he  is  entitled  to  are  not  so  pure 
in  heart  and  so  unselfish  and  lofty  in  ideal  as  to  be  worthy 
to  have  committed  to  their  exclusive  keeping 'either  the 
hopes  and  future  of  all  blacks  or  the  absolute,  ring- 
riveted,  intrigue-entrenched  control  of  this  vast  majority 
of  politically  helpless  whites. 

It  is  not  strange,  it  is  only  what  might  be  expected  to 
follow  as  a  result  of  our  southern  political  leadership, 
that  we  have  a  vast  illiterate  and  impoverished  white  pop- 

208 


illation.  It  will  be  remembered  that  some  southern  repre 
sentatives  in  Congress  did  not  warm  up  to  the  Blair  bill 
for  national  aid  to  education.  The  inference  they  caused 
to  be  drawn  by  their  constituents  was  that  it  was  be 
cause  of  the  Negro,  but  there  is  now  a  well  founded  opin 
ion  these  leaders  of  this  oligarchy  felt  themselves  a 
bit  more  secure  in  political  power  without  an  educated, 
thinking,  independent  white  constituency.  These  men 
have  felt  capable  of  subduing  the  blacks,  but  the  problem 
with  them,  that  with  which  they  have  had  to  deal  in  these 
recent  years,  is  the  suppression  of  the  revolting  masses 
of  the  whites. 

That  these  men  are  masters  of  the  situation  the  exist 
ing  conditions  thoroughly  demonstrate.  It  is  to-day  as 
impossible  for  the  opposition  majority  of  whites,  without 
including  the  blacks,  to  overthrow  this  political  despot 
ism  of  the  minority  in  the  state  of  Alabama  as  was  it  im 
possible  for  the  Negro  in  that  state  to  free  himself  from 
the  manacles  and  chains  of  chattel  slavery  in  1860.  This 
cruel  and  unjust  system,  interwoven  to-day  as  it  was 
before  the  civil  war  in  all  social  and  political  affairs,  is 
bolstered  up  by  an  intolerance  that  has  to  many  the 
fierceness  of  the  very  jaws  of  hell  and  constitutes  a  social 
and  political  barbarity  as  heartlessly  disregardful  of 
whites  who  oppose  it  as  were  the  old  slave  holders  heart 
less  to  freedom's  cry  for  enslaved  blacks. 

That  treacherous  cry  of  "let  the  South  alone"  is  as 
ungodly,  as  infamous  to-day  as  was  that  anti-abolition 
and  copperhead  sentiment  of  the  North  detestable  in 
1860.  Any  man,  whoever  he  may  be,  however  exalted 
may  be  his  station,  who  palliates,  excuses,  or  knowingly 
and  willingly  acquiesces  in  the  aggressions  of  this  sys 
tem  which  now  insidiously  seeks  extension  of  its  in 
fluence  and  power  into  the  free  states  of  the  North,  is, 
whether  he  so  wills  it  or  not,  aiding  and  abetting  a 
clique  in  these  states  of  the  South,  who  are  at  this  hour 

209 


as  much  in  revolt  against  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the 
amendments  to  the  American  Constitution  as  they  were 
out  of  the  Union  when  they  trained  the  guns  of  their 
Confederacy  at  the  flag  of  this  Republic. 


210  V 


THE  NEGRO  AND  THE  NATION 

Dr.  William  A.  Sinclair 

of 

Philadelphia 

That  the  nation  should  remain  apathetic,  supine,  limp ; 
seemingly  dazed  in  the  presence  of  this  frenzied,  dashing, 
over-weening,  over-bearing,  over-reaching,  imperialistic 
southern  leadership,  is  not  a  new  thing  under  the  sun. 
It  was  even  so  in  the  days  of  slavery.  The  nation  tem 
porized  and  procrastinated  with  slavery  until  the  monster 
all  but  stung  it  to  death.  Is  the  lesson  so  soon  forgotten  ? 
Has  the  tremendous  cost  ceased  even  to  be  a  dream  ? 

I  may  assert  that  the  nation  is,  even  now,  in  the  midst 
of  the  gravest  complications.  Already  southern  leader 
ship  has  inaugurated  a  condition  of  semi-slavery  in  the 
southern  states.  The  situation  is  growing  alarmingly 
worse.  He  that  runs  may  read.  And  this  explosive 
situation  is  being  tempered  with  high  sounding  phrases 
about  the  fraternal  relations  between  the  sections,  the 
obliteration  of  all  sectional  lines,  the  accord  and  concord 
between  the  North  and  South.  I  say,  solemnly  and  de 
liberately,  that  all  this  talk  and  palaver  is  the  merest 
twaddle.  It  is  without  foundation  in  reason  or  in  fact. 

There  can  be  no  real  obliteration  of  section  lines,  no 
genuine  spirit  of  fraternity,  no  bona  fide  concord  between 
the  sections,  so  long  as  southern  leadership  draws  its  in 
spiration  and  takes  its  cue  from  the  brutal  traditions  of 
slavery,  and  disregards  the  dictates  of  humanity  and 

211 


justice,  and  tramples  under  foot  the  laws  of  God  and 
the  laws  of  the  republic  in  dealing  with  their  fellow  man, 
thus  putting  "the  South  once  more  in  a  position  pro- 
vokingly  offensive  to  the  moral  sense  and  the  enlightened 
spirit  of  the  world  outside." 

Among  those  of  responsibility  and  great  prestige  who 
have  made  deliverances  on  this  question,  I  may  refer 
to  President  Taft.  Mr.  Taft  has  repeatedly  gone  out  of 
his  way,  both  by  words  and  by  deeds  to  placate  the 
South.  The  people  of  the  North  trust  him,  not  because 
they  believe  that  he  is  always  wise  in  these  matters,  but 
because  they  believe  that  he  is  always  honest. 

Mr.  Taft,  while  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  presiden 
tial  nomination,  cast  his  tent  in  the  South  and  camped 
there.  After  he  received  the  nomination,  he  again 
camped  in  the  South.  And  after  his  triumphant  elec 
tion  he  went  back  to  the  South  to  camp  again.  And  it 
is  only  fair  to  say  that  no  people  can  be  more  hospit 
able  than  southerners ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  none 
know  better  how  to  use  hospitality  to  advance  their 
plans  and  purposes.  In  the  history  of  our  republic, 
northern  public  men  have  repeatedly  been  wrecked  on 
the  shoals  of  southern  hospitality.  Mr.  Taft  had  the 
opportunity  and  did  study  conditions  at  first  hand. 
What  are  his  conclusions? 

In  that  portion  of  his  inaugural  address,  his  first 
state  paper,  in  which  he  refers  to  southern  conditions 
and  the  Negro  people,  he  exposes,  unwittingly  to  be 
sure,  the  hollow  pretense  and  naked  sham  of  all  the 
prattle  about  the  obliteration  of  section  lines. 

Mr.  Taft  refers  to  the  South  as  a  distinct  section ;  he 
refers  to  the  southern  people  as  a  distinct  people ;  he 
laments  the  deplorable  and  menacing  conditions  existing 
in  the  South;  and  he  makes  a  plaintive  appeal  for  just 
laws,  for  due  respect  for  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  for  humane  treatment  of  the  Negro  people  and 


212 


for  recognition  of  their  citizenship.  To  quote  his  words, 
he  says :  "I  look  forward  with  hope  to  increasing  the 
already  good  feeling  between  the  South  and  the  other 
sections  of  the  country.  I  look  forward  to  an  increase 
in  the  tolerance  of  political  views  of  all  kinds  and  their 
advocacy  throughout  the  South.  .  to  an  in 
creased  feeling  on  the  part  of  all  the  people  of  the 
South  that  this  government  is  their  government  and 
that  its  officers  in  their  states  are  their  officers. 
The  Fifteenth  Amendment  has  not  been  generally  ob 
served  in  the  past,  it  ought  to  be  observed.  .  .  It 
never  will  be  repealed,  and  it  never  ought  to  be  repealed. 
The  Negroes  are  now  Americans — and  this  is  their  only 
country  and  their  only  flag.  They  have  shown  them 
selves  anxious  to  live  for  it  and  die  for  it." 

After  this  deliverance,  Mr.  Taft  bent  his  knees  to  the 
Baal  of  southern  race  hate  and  race  prejudice  by  de 
claring  that  he  would  not,  or  may  not,  appoint  colored 
men  to  Federal  offices  if  the  white  of  the  community 
should  protest  against  it.  This  is  a  burlesque  on  Repub 
lican  institutions.  White  men  and  colored  men  voted 
for  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Taft;  white  men  and  colored 
men  supported  his  candidacy  and  voted  for  his  election. 
And  white  men  and  colored  men — other  things  being 
equal — should  share  in  the  immunities  and  privileges  un 
der  the  government.  The  peace,  prosperity  and  safety  of 
this  Republic  demand  that  it  shall  be  governed  by  law 
and  justice,  and  not  by  race  hate  and  race  prejudice. 
Equal  right  for  all  the  people  is  the  only  safety  of  all 
the  people. 


213 


Address  of 

Rev.  C.  E.  Stowe 

I  regret  that  it  was  known  that  I  was  in  the  room,  but 
of  course  the  interest  is  not  in  me  or  in  my  own  per 
sonality,  but  in  that  of  my  mother,  and  that  is  the  way  I 
receive  your  tribute.  I  stand  here  simply  to  speak  for 
her.  Now  with  those  self-effacing  remarks,  which  are 
equally  sincere,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  am  very  glad  to 
stand  here  as  speaking  for  her  and  for  her  wonderful 
great  love  for  all  God's  creatures.  For  I  want  to  tell 
you  from  conviction,  from  observation,  that  the  great 
power  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  and  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  was  not  an  intellectual  power,  but  a  marvellous 
power  of  loving.  There  have  been  men  of  greater  ge 
nius  than  Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  many  ways,  but  he 
was  wonderful  in  his  power  of  love  and  that  was  also 
the  case  with  my  own  mother. 

The  writing  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  was  the  most  re 
markable  thing  in  the  world.  Mrs.  Stowe  came  to  Bos 
ton  in  1850,  and  stayed  with  her  brother  Edward  at  the 
Park  Street  church.  I  was  only  a  baby  at  the  time,  and 
she  had  six  little  children  with  her.  My  Uncle  Edward's 
wife  said  to  my  mother,  "If  I  could  write  as  you  do, 
I  would  write  something  to  make  people  feel  wrhat  a 
curse,  what  an  awful  thing  American  slavery  is."  My 
sister,  who  was  living  at  that  time,  told  me  she  remem 
bered  it  very  well,  although  she  was  only  a  little  girl 
thirteen  years  of  age.  She  told  me  she  remembered 
looking  up  into  my  mother's  face,  and  she  heard  my 

2F4 


mother  say  "Isabella,  I  will  if  God  gives  me  strength/' 
My  father  was  a  helpless  invalid  at  that  time.  His 
health  broke  down  in  Cincinnati  in  the  Lane  Theological 
Seminary,  he  was  not  able  to  be  of  any  assistance  to  them 
in  the  seminary,  and  this  little  woman  had  to  use  her 
right  hand  to  earn  money  to  move  her  family  to  Bruns 
wick,  Maine,  where  Professor  Stowe  had  accepted  a 
professorship.  She  had  a  little  baby  at  the  time  (I  am 
the  result)  and  she  wrote  a  letter  afterwards  to  my 
Uncle  Edward's  wife,  Isabella,  "I  can't  write  anything 
on  that  subject  or  anything  else  while  I  have  to  sleep 
with  the  baby ;  but  I  will  write  it  some  time,  God  helping 
me."  I  will  say  that  I  rather  reluctantly  confess  that  I 
was  a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  to  the  book. 

One  afternoon  as  she  was  sitting  in  a  little  church  in 
Brunswick — she  had  no  conception  whatever  of  how  to 
develop  any  book — she  was  sitting  in  that  little  church 
in  Brunswick,  and  she  said  as  she  sat  there,  suddenly 
without  anything  to  indicate  that  such  a  psychological 
phenomena  was  passing  through  her  mind,  she  saw  the 
whole  scene  of  the  death  of  Uncle  Tom  pass  before  her 
like  a  series  of  pictures.  It  seemed  like  the  unrolling  of 
a  panorama.  She  saw  that  terrible  scene  where  Legre 
threatens  Uncle  Tom.  She  saw  him  standing  before 
Legree ;  she  saw  the  whole  thing,  picture  after  picture. 
She  broke  into  uncontrollable  sobbing,  and  what  came 
to  her  with  that  series  of  pictures  was  "Inasmuch  as  ye 
did  it  unto  the  least  of  one  of  these,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 
She  saw  Christ;  and  a  voice  said  to  her  "Cry."  She 
went  home — her  husband  was  away — and  she  wrote  out 
what  had  passed  before  her  in  this  vision.  Her  husband 
being  away,  she  gathered  her  little  children  around  her, 
three  little  girls  and  two  Ijttle  boys — of  course  I  was 
the  infant,  utterly  unconscious  of  what  was  passing. 
She  began  to  read.  The  children  all  burst  into  sobbing, 
and  the  little  boy  said,  "Mamma,  I  can't  hear  it,  slavery 

215 


is  the  most  accursed  thing  on  the  face  of  this  earth." 
Friends,  what  happened  in  that  family,  happened  all 
over  the  country.  I  will  not  take  advantage  of  the  priv 
ilege  given  me  to  speak  of  it,  but  you  must  know  how 
near  it  is  in  my  heart.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  I  recognize 
thoroughly  your  appreciation  of  my  mother,  and  for  my 
mother  I  receive  it.  She  is  not  able  to  stand  here  before 
you,  so  I  simply  stand  here  for  her. 


216 


Address  of 

Rev.  E.  W.  Moore 

of 

Philadelphia 

The  right  of  every  American  citizen  to  select  his 
own  society  and  invite  whom  he  will  to  his  parlor  and 
table  should  be  sacredly  respected.  A  man's  house  is  his 
castle,  and  he  has  the  right  to  admit,  or  refuse  admis 
sion,  as  he  pleases.  This  right  belongs  to  the  humblest 
and  the  highest.  The  exercise  of  it  by  any  of  our  citi 
zens  toward  any  body  or  class  who  may  presume  to  in 
trude,  should  cause  no  complaint,  for  each  and  all  may 
exercise  the  same  right  toward  whom  he  will. 

When  he  quits  his  home  and  goes  upon  the  public 
street,  enters  a  public  car,  or  public  house,  he  has  no 
exclusive  right  of  occupancy.  He  is  only  a  part  of  the 
great  public,  and  while  he  has  the  right  to  walk,  ride 
and  be  accommodated  with  food  and  shelter  in  a  public 
conveyance  or  hotel,  he  has  no  exclusive  right  to  say 
that  another  citizen,  tall  or  short,  black  or  white,  shall 
not  be  accorded  the  same  civil  treatment. 

The  argument  against  equality  at  hotels  is  very  im 
properly  put  upon  the  ground  that  the  exercise  of  such 
rights  is  social  equality — but  this  ground  is  unreasonable. 
It  is  hard  to  say  what  socia?  equality  is,  but  it  is  certain 
that  going  into  the  same  street  car,  hotel,  or  steamboat 
cabin  does  not  make  any  man  society  for  another,  any 
more  than  flying  in  the  air  makes  all  birds  of  one  feather. 

217 


The  distinction  between  the  two  sorts  of  equality  is 
broad  and  plain  to  the  understanding  of  the  most  limited, 
and  yet,  blinded  by  prejudice,  men  never  cease  to  con 
found  one  with  the  other,  and  allow  themselves  to  in 
fringe  the  civil  rights  of  their  fellow-men  as  if  those 
rights  were,  in  some  way,  in  violation  of  their  social 
rights. 

That  this  denial  of  rights  to  us  is  based  on  our  race 
only  as  race  is  a  badge  of  condition,  is  manifest  in  the 
fact  that  no  matter  how  decently  dressed  or  well-behaved 
a  colored  man  may  be,  he  is  denied  civil  treatment  in  the 
ways  thus  pointed  out,  unless  he  comes  as  servant.  His 
race,  not  his  character,  determines  the  place  he  shall 
hold  and  the  kind  of  treatment  he  shall  receive.  That 
this  is  due  to  a  prejudice  that  has  no  rational  principle 
under  it  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  presence  of  colored 
persons  in  hotels  and  railroad  cars  is  only  offensive  when 
they  are  there  as  guests  and  passengers.  As  servants 
they  are  welcome,  but  as  equal  citizens  they  are  not. 

It  is  also  seen  in  the  fact  that  nowhere  else  on  the 
globe,  except  in  the  United  States  are  colored  people 
subjected  to  insult  and  outrage  on  account  of  race.  The 
colored  traveller  in  Europe  does  not  meet  with  it,  and 
we  denounce  it  here  as  a  disgrace  to  American  civiliza 
tion  and  American  religion  and  as  violation  of  the  spirit 
and  letter  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

From  those  courts  which  have  solemnly  sworn  to  sup 
port  the  Constitution  and  that  yet  treat  this  provision  of 
it  with  contempt  we  appeal  to  the  people,  and  call  upon 
our  friends  to  remember  our  civil  rights  at  the  ballot 
box.  On  the  point  of  the  two  equalities  we  are  deter 
mined  to  be  understood. 

We  leave  the  social  equality  where  it  should  be  left, 
with  each  individual  man  and  woman.  No  law  can  regu 
late  or  control  it.  It  is  a  matter  in  which  governments 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do.  Each  may  choose  his  own 

218 


friends  and  associates  without  interference  or  dictation 
of  any. 

Terrible  as  have  been  'the  outrages  committed  upon 
us  in  respect  to  our  civil  rights,  more  shocking  and  scan 
dalous  still  have  been  the  outrages  committed  upon  our 
political  rights  which  began  by  means  of  bull-dozing, 
ku-kluking,  fraudulent  counts,  tissue  ballots  and  like  de 
vices,  until  in  many  of  the  southern  states  they  have 
set  aside  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  This 
has  been  done  in  face  of  the  Republican  party  and  un 
der  successive  Republican  administrations,  So  far  as 
we  are  concerned,  there  is  no  government  or  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States. 

To  my  mind,   this  is  no  question   of  party.     It   is  a 
question  of  law  and  government.    It  is  a  question  wheth 
er   the   government   or  the   mob   shall   rule     the     land ; 
whether  the  promises  solemnly  made  to  us  in  the  Consti 
tution  be  manfully  kept    or  flagrantly  broken. 


219 


Address  of 

Charles  Edward  Russell 

Do  I  raise  myself  in  any  way  by  depressing  my  fel 
low  man?  Believe  me,  the  idea  contained  in  that  sug 
gestion  is  the  heart  and  soul  and  substance  of  all  there 
is  in  this  race  problem.  There  is  no  race  problem,  abso 
lutely  no  race  problem.  The  only  problem  is  the  prob 
lem  of  snobbery.  The  only  thing  that  is  involved  in 
the  position  of  the  colored  man  in  the  South  or  in  the 
North  either,  is  a  pure  question  of  caste.  That  is  all. 
Believe  me,  you  are  not  discriminated  against  because 
your  skins  are  dark,  the  color  of  your  skin  makes  abso 
lutely  no  difference.  It  is  not  involved  in  the  matter  at 
all.  " 

Let  me  show  you :  A  little  while  ago  I  was  at  the 
dinner  table  of  a  rich  man  of  New  York,  eminent  in 
society,  and  one  of  the  guests  was  a  man  whose  skin 
was  much  darker  than  the  skins  of  most  of  you.  He 
sat  at  that  dinner  table,  the  honored  and  petted  guest, 
with  more  attention  was  paid  to  him  than  to  anything 
else.  His  skin  was  dark,  but  the  color  of  his  skin  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  It  is  not  because  your  skins  are 
darker  than  ours,  but  because  you  are  closer  to  nature, 
and  the  substance  of  caste  and  the  substance  of  snobbery 
has  been  from  the  beginning  that  hatred  of  the  man  that 
works  with  his  hands.  It  is  not  merely  the  idea  of  labor, 
but  the  idea  of  the  lowest  form  of  labor,  which  is  slav 
ery  ;  it  is  the  taint  of  slavery  about  you  that  makes  you 
hateful  to  the  snobbish  man  and  nothing  else.  Low 


220 


labor  has  always  been  detestable  to  the  snobbish  organ 
ization,  and  the  most  detestable  of  all  labor,  is  the  un 
paid  labor,  the  labor  that  is  stolen.  It  is  because  you 
represent  the  unthinking  man,  that  you  are  discriminated 
against. 

I  would  like  to  issue  a  word  of  warning  to  two  classes 
of  my  white  fellow  citizens,  as  to  just  exactly  what  this 
thing  means  that  they  have  done  to  you.  They  have 
nullified  two  articles  of  the  Constitution  in  order  to  get 
at  you.  I  would  like  to  tell  two  classes  of  my  white 
fellow  men  what  that  means.  First  to  the  white  work 
ing  man :  They  have  nullified  that  part  of  the  Con 
stitution  that  guarantees  the  franchise,  irrespective  of 
color.  That  has  been  done  at  the,  demand  of  a  dominant 
class.  Under  conceivable  conditions  it  would  be  just 
exactly  as  feasible,  just  as  easy,  to  deprive  the  white 
working  man  of  the  franchise,  as  it  has  been  to  deprive 
the  colored  man.  The  next  warning  is  that  if  they  can 
nullify  the  Constitution  with  regard  to  franchise,  they 
can  nullify  it  with  regard  to  anything  else.  Look  out ! 
Look  out !  Under  conceivable  circumstances  it  will  be 
just  exactly  as  easy  to  nullify  that  clause  of  the  Consti 
tution  which  guarantees  property  against  confiscation 
without  due  process  of  law — just  as  easy.  Because,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  if  there  is  any  part  of  the  constitution 
that  is  not  valid,  there  is  no  part  of  it  that  is  valid.  If 
there  is  one  thing  in  that  Constitution  that  cannot  be 
enforced,  there  is  nothing  in  it  that  can  be  enforced. 


RESOLUTIONS 

The    Conference,    after    considerable    discussion,    then 
adopted  the   following  resolutions : 

"We  denounce  the  ever-growing  oppression  of  our 
10,000,000  colored  fellow  citizens  as  the  greatest 
menace  that  threatens  the  country.  Often  plundered 
of  their  just  share  of  the  public  funds,  robbed  of 
nearly  all  part  in  the  government,  segregated  by 
common  carriers,*  some  murdered  with  impunity, 
and  all  treated  with  open  contempt  by  officials,  they 
are  held  in  some  States  in  practical  slavery  to  the 
white  community.  The  systematic  persecution  of 
law-abiding  citizens  and  their  disfranchisement  on 
account  of  their  race  alone  is  a  crime  that  will 
ultimately  drag  down  to  an  infamous  end  any  nation 
that  allows  it  to  be  practised,  and  it  bears  most 
heavily  on  those  poor  white  farmers  and  laborers 
whose  economic  position  is  most  similar  to  that  of 
the  persecuted  race." 

"The  nearest  hope  lies  in  the  immediate  and  pa 
tiently  continued  enlightenment  of  the  people  who 
have  been  inveigled  into  a  campaign  of  oppression. 
The  spoils  of  persecution  should  not  go  to  enrich  any 
class  or  classes  of  the  population.  Indeed  persecu 
tion  of  organized  workers,  peonage,  enslavement  of 
prisoners,  and  even  disfranchisement  already  threaten 
large  bodies  of  whites  in  many  Southern  States." 


*The  insertion  of  the  phrase  "segregated  by  common  carriers" 
was  moved  as  an  amendment  by  Mr.  William  M.  Trotter. 


222 


"We  agree  fully  with  the  prevailing  opinion  that 
the  transformation  of  the  unskilled  colored  laborers 
in  industry  and  agriculture  into  skilled  workers  is 
of  vital  importance*  to  that  race  and  to  the  nation, 
but  we  demand  for  the  Negroes,  as  for  all  others, 
a  free  and  complete  education,  whether  by  city, 
State,  or  nation,  a  grammar  school  and  industrial 
training  for  all,  and  technical,  professional,  and 
academic  education  for  the  most  gifted." 

"But  the  public  schools  assigned  to  the  Negro  of 
whatever  kind  or  grade  will  never  receive  a  fair  and 
equal  treatment  until  he  is  given  equal  treatment  in 
the  Legislature  and  before  the  law.  Nor  will  the 
practically  educated  Negro,  no  matter  how  valuable 
to  the  community  he  may  prove,  be  given  a  fair 
return  for  his  labor  or  encouraged  to  put  forth  his 
best  efforts  or  given  the  chance  to  develop  that 
efficiency  that  comes  only  outside  the  school  until  he 
is  respected  in  his  legal  rights  as  a  man  and  a 
citizen." 

"We  regard  with  grave  concern  the  attempt  mani 
fest  South  and  North  to  deny  to  black  men  the 
right  to  work  and  to  enforce  this  demand  by  vio 
lence  and  bloodshed.  Such  a  question  is  too  funda 
mental  and  clear  even  to  be  submitted  to  arbitration. 
The  late  strike  in  Georgia  is  not  simply  a  demand 
that  Negroes  be  displaced,  but  that  proven  and 
efficient  men  be  made  to  surrender  their  long  fol 
lowed  means  of  livelihood  to  white  competitors." 

"As  first  and  immediate  steps  toward  remedying 


*The  phrase  originally  read  "of  great  importance  to  that  race." 
Mr.  Ransome  moved  as  an  amendment  that  it  be  altered  to  "of 
first  importance."  Bishop  Walters  moved  as  an  amendment 
to  the  amendment  that  the  words  should  read  "of  vital  import 
ance."  This  amendment  was  carried.  Mr.  Ransome's  amend 
ment  was  then  unanimously  carried. 

223 


these  national  wrongs,  so  full  of  peril  for  the  whites 
as  well  as  the  blacks  of  all  sections,  we  demand*  of 
Congress  and  the  Executive : 

(i.)  That  the  Constitution  be  strictly  enforced 
and  the  civil  rights  guaranteed  under  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  be  secured  impartially  to  all. 

(2.)  That  there  be  equal  educational  opportunities 
for  all  and  in  all  the  States,  and  that  public  school 
expenditure  be  the  same  for  the  Negro  and  white 
child. 

(3.)  That  in  accordance  with  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment  the  right  of  the  Negro  to  the  ballot  on 
the  same  terms  as  other  citizens  be  recognized  in 
every  part  of  the  country." 

The  committee  on  permanent  organization  in  its  re 
port  proposed  a  resolution  providing  for  "the  incorpora 
tion  of  a  national  committee  to  be  known  as  a  Commit 
tee  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Negro  Race,  to  aid  their 
progress  and  make  their  citizenship  a  reality,  with  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  pertaining  thereto."  It  pre 
sented  also  a  resolution  calling  for  a  committee  of  forty 
charged  with  the  organization  of  a  national  committee 
with  power  to  call  the  convention  in  1910. 

The  resolution  proposed  by  Mr.  Trotter  was  referred 
to  the  committee  on  resolutions  and  was  reported  back 
and  adopted  in  the  following  form: 

"We  deplore  any  recognition  of,  or  concession  to, 
prejudice  or  color  by  the  federal  government  in  any 
officer  or  branch  thereof,  as  well  as  the  presidential 
declaration  on  the  appointment  of  colored  men  to 
office  in  the  South,  contradicting  as  it  does  the  Presi 
dent's  just  and  admirable  utterance  against  the  pro- 


*The  words  "we  demanded"  were  inserted  on   the  motion   of 
Mr.   Greener.      This  amendment  was   unanimously  carried. 

224 


posed   disfranchisement  of    the    colored    voters    of 
Maryland. 

Mr.  Trotter  proposed  a  resolution  demanding  that 
lynching  be  made  a  federal  crime.  The  resolution  was 
referred  to  the  committee  on  resolutions  which  reported 
that  it  held  the  question  of  lynching  to  be  covered  in  the 
main  resolution  by  the  words  "murdered  with  impunity.'' 
Mr.  Trotter's  resolution  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  fifty-three 
to  twenty-one. 

The  following  Committee  of  Forty  was  then  named : 
William  English  Walling,  chairman,  New  York ; 
Rev.  W.  H.  Brooks,  New  York;  Prof.  John  Dewey, 
New  York;  Paul  Kennedy,  New  York;  Jacob  W. 
Mack,  New  York ;  Mrs.  Mary  MacLean,  New  York ; 
Dr.  Henry  Moskowitz,  New  York;  John  E.  Mil- 
holland,  New  York ;  Miss  Leonora  O'Reilly,  New  York ; 
Charles  Edward  Russell,  New  York;  Prof.  Edwin  R.  A. 
Seligman,  New  York ;  Oswald  G.  Villard,  New  York ; 
Miss  Lillian  D.  Wald,  New  York;  Bishop  Alexander 
\Valters,  New  York ;  Dr.  Stephen  S.  Wise,  New  York ; 
Miss  Mary  W.  Ovington,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ;  Dr.  O.  M. 
Waller,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ;  Rev.  J.  H.  Holmes,  Yonkers, 
N.  Y.;  Prof.  W.  L.  Bulkley,  Ridgefield  Park,  N.  J. ; 
Miss  Maria  Baldwin,  Boston,  Mass. ;  Archibald  H. 
Grimke,  Boston,  Mass. ;  Albert  E.  Pillsbury,  Boston, 
Mass. ;  Moorfield  Storey,  Boston,  Mass. ;  Pres.  Chas. 
P.  Thwing,  Cleveland,  O. ;  Pres.  W.  S.  Scarborough. 
Wilberforce,  O. ;  Miss  Jane  Addams,  Chicago,  111. ;  Mrs. 
Ida  Wells  Barnett,  Chicago,  III;  Dr.  C.  E.  Bentley, 
Chicago,  111. ;  Mrs.  Celia  Parker  Woolley,  Chicago, 
III;  Dr.  William  Sinclair,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Miss 
Susan  Wharton,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  R.  R.  Wright, 
Jr.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. ;  L.  M.  Hershaw,  Washington,  D. 
C. ;  Judge  Wendell  P.  Stafford,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Mrs. 
^Mary  Church  Terrell,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Rev.  J.  Mil 
ton  Waldron,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Prof.  W.  E.  B. 
DuBois,  Atlanta,  Ga. ;  Leslie  Pinckney  Hill,  Manassas, 
Va. 

225 


LETTER  FROM  MR.  WILLIAM  LLOYD 
GARRISON,  BOSTON 

I  regret  my  inability  to  be  present  at  the  Conference  and 
record  my  protest  against  the  rising  tide  of  race  prejudice 
and  caste.  Every  step  in  that  direction  needs  to  be  un 
flinchingly  met,  regardless  of  the  eminent  respectability 
that  now  lends  countenance  to  this  resurgent  spirit  of 
slavery.  As  in  former  days,  the  most  insidious  betrayal 
of  freedom  comes  from  its  professed  friends. 

The  Vardamans  and  Tillmans  are  harmless  in  compar 
ison.  Their  brutal  avowal  of  a  purpose  to  reduce  the 
Negro  to  a  state  of  permanent  vassalage,  through  evasion 
or  defiance  of  the  Constitution  and  law,  repels  humane 
souls  and  makes  lor  justice.  It  is  men  of  so-called  light 
and  leading,  solicitous  regarding  social  problems,  arro 
gating  to  themselves  the  character  of  friendly  advisers 
of  the  colored  people,  yet  viewing  the  question  from  the 
summit  of  race  pride  and  birth,  who  are  most  to  be 
feared. 

From  these  come  easy  acquiescence  in  the  abrogation 
of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  the  approval  of  separate 
schools  based  on  complexion,  and  an  affected  horror  of 
racial  intermarriage  for  fear  of  white  deterioration- 
while  contemplating  without  disturbance  the  unabated 
illicit  connections  so  flagrantly  in  evidence.  The  creed 
leads  to  servitude,  in  another  form,  of  the  people  liber 
ated  by  Lincoln's  proclamation ;  compassing  by  force  or 
fraud  the  end  for  which  the  Southern  Confederacy  fought 
and  failed.  Now,  as  then,  democracy  is  in  the  balance 
The  issue  will  determine  whether  self-government  can 
survive  in  a  land  where  material  interests  long  over- 

226 


shadow  the  principles  and  enthusiasms  of  liberty.  It  is 
the  fair-weather  soothsayers  who  drug  the  public  con 
science  and  weaken  resistance  to  privilege. 

I  trust  that  the  Conference  will  utter  no  uncertain 
sound  on  any  point  affecting  the  vital  subject.  No  part 
of  it  is  too  delicate  for  plain  speech.  The  republican 
experiment  is  at  stake,  every  tolerated  wrong  to  the 
Xegro  reacting  with  double  force  upon  white  citizens 
guilty  of  faithlessness  to  their  brothers.  The  rampant 
antipathy  to  the  Oriental  races  is  part  and  parcel  of  the 
domestic  question.  Safety  lies  in  an  absolute  refusal  to 
differentiate  the  rights  of  human  beings.  Each  has 
equal  claim  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness, 
no  outworn  formula,  in  spite  of  the  fashion  of  the  mighty 
to  deride  it. 

I  put  political  rights  before  educational.  Universities 
have  no  difficulty  in  rearing  despots,  and  the  wicked  laws 
of  all  nations  are  the  handiwork  of  men  taught  in  the 
schools.  Let  ignorance,  blunder,  and  bad  laws  result. 
Under  impartial  self-gpvernment  the  blunderers  reap  the 
punishment  and  learn  wisdom  and  self-restraint.  No 
college  compares  with  this  primary  school  of  civilization 
in  educating  a  people.  Learning  never  yet  guaranteed 
rights ;'  rights  universally  secured  are  the  sure  guaranty 
of  learning.  Let  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  Conference 
be  lifted  for  justice  and  opportunity  to  all  races,  colors, 
and  sexes  without  distinction,  in  face  of  the  casuistry  all 
abounding  in  this  darkened  day. 

Yours,  for  a  united  humanity, 

WM.  LLOYD  GARRISON. 


227 


LETTER  FROM  MR.  BRAND  WHITLOCK 
MAYOR  OF  TOLEDO,  OHIO 

No  one  who  loves  the  ideals  of  America  and  believes 
fundamentally  in  democracy,  in  the  equality  and  brother 
hood  of  men,  as  I  do,  can  regard  the  present  temper  of  a 
large  portion  of  our  people  toward  the  Negro  with  any 
emotion  other  than  sadness. 

The  problem  which  this  condition  presents  is  profound 
and  difficult,  and  the  solution  will  demand  our  best 
thought  and  most  enlightened  sympathies.  The  nation 
went  through  a  dreadful  war  to  give  the  Negro  political 
freedom,  and  yet  even  that  has  not  been  accomplished, 
except  in  a  formal,  legal  sense;  and  even  in  that  depart 
ment  there  are  so  many  proposals  and  even  achievements 
in  retrogression,  that  to-day  the  Negro  is  ostracized  and 
by  many  proscribed  and  hated.  The  question  is  no 
longer  what  we  once  considered  it,  namely,  a  sectional 
one ;  it  has  become  a  national  one.  The  Negro  is  treated 
as  contemptuously  and  used  as  hardly  in  the  North  as 
in  the  South.  There  is  even  arising  among  us  a  kind  of 
snobbery,  the  most  detestable  that  can  be  imagined— 
namely,  an  affected  dislike  of  the  Negro,  considered  as 
an  evidence  of  superiority  and  aristocracy. 

The  problem  is  not  only  social  or  political;  it  has  its 
economic  side,  and  more  mysterious  and  baffling  than 
any  of  these,  its  psychological  and  ethnic  side.  It  must 
be  studied  in  all  these  various  phases.  Many  profound 
and  learned  articles  have  been  written  by  the  eminent 
and  the  learned,  in  which  it  is  insisted  that  we  study  the 
Negro.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  we  need  quite  as  much 
to  study  ourselves.  The  white  race  has  been  two  cen 
turies  in  creating  this  problem,  and  according  to  the  law 

228 


of  moral  action  and  reaction,  the  law  of  moral  equiva 
lents  and  balances,  we  cannot  in  forty-five  years  solve  a 
problem  which  we  were  two  hundred  years  in  creating. 
I  do  not  think  the  problem  is  insoluble;  I  do  not  think 
any  problem  is  insoluble,  and  I  think  we  shall  solve  this 
problem  only  as  we  recognize  and  believe  devoutly  in  the 
ideals  and  principles  of  America,  which,  if  they  mean 
anything  at  all,  mean  that  all  men  without  distinction,  are 
to  be  free  and  equal,  at  least,  in  opportunity.  That  is 
what  America  is  for,  and  the  true  American  spirit  can 
not  exist  until  America  is  for  all  men  on  equal  terms, 
no  matter  who  or  what  they  are,  or  who  or  what  they 
were,  or  where  they  came  from,  or  what  they  believe, 
or  what  their  race  or  color.  We  can  solve  this  problem, 
we  can  solve  any  problem  in  politics  and  economics  prop 
erly  only  by  adhering  to  these  fundamental  principles  of 
our  America,  only  by  keeping  in  mind  that  truth  so  well 
expressed  by  Mr.  Howells : 

"The  first  thing  you  have  to  learn  here  below  is  that 
in  essentials  you  are  just  like  everyone  else,  and  that 
you  are  different  from  others  only  in  what  is  not  so 
much  worth  while.  If  you  have  anything  in  common 
with  your  fellow-creatures,  it  is  something  that  God  gave 
you ;  if  you  have  anything  that  seems  quite  your  own, 
it  is  from  your  silly  self,  and  is  a  sort  of  perversion  of 
what  came  to  you  from  the  Creator  who  made  you  out 
of  himself,  and  had  nothing  else  to  make  any  one  out 
of.  There  is  not  really  any  difference  between  you  and 
your  fellow-creatures ;  but  only  a  seeming  difference  that 
flatters  and  cheats  you  with  a  sense  of  your  strangeness 
and  makes  you  think  you  are  a  remarkable  fellow." 


229 


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